Will we ever be able to buy phones direct from mfg's and/or delete all bloatware?

[eds817]

It looks like the major carriers, at least here in the US are no longer subsidizing phones. I am with AT&T and even though they still offer to subsidize phone with a 2 year contract they are raising the monthly cost which makes it the same as buying under their Next program. If I were to buy a new phone under their Next program I will pay the full price over 24 months. If I want a subsidized phone with a 2 year contract my monthly bill will increase by $25.00 or $600.00 over the 2 years.

To me it's obvious that carriers really don't want to sell hardware and if they have to they want you to pay full price. If this is going to be the norm then why don't the manufacturers just sell them direct. This will give the manufacturer the ability to update devices more quickly and eliminate the carrier bloatware.

If we cannot buy direct and are forced to get devices from the carrier and pay full price then we should be allowed to delete any software (bloatware) we want.

Does anyone have any information about this or in what direction the market will be heading?

Thanks in advance for all comments.

 

[Paul627g]

I don't believe we will ever completely be able to remove ALL bloatware. Some of those are deals between carrier and/or OEM and its ways of promotion & advertising gimmicks. At least you have the option to disable almost everything now.

As for buying devices outright from the OEM.. As good as it sounds that runs into many unknowns among the carriers since there are specifics for some carriers that is put in during the certification process by the carrier to make everything work. It a perfect world it sounds like a great idea but as we know its not a perfect world

 

[eds817]

Doesn't Google do it now with the Nexus phone?

 

[Paul627g]

Doesn't Google do it now with the Nexus phone?

Yes and there has been issues with Sprint and Verizon with the Nexus 5 and 6...

 

[droid4lyf]

Apple sells their phones very high because it is bloatware free. That should also be the norm for the rest. Local channels are free because of advertisements. Samsung should sell their phones much cheaper if they want to put bloatwares in their phones.

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[maj71303]

only phones where you can get rid of or don't have any bloat are iPhones, Nexus, & windows phone. These are the only phone which does't come with bloat or you can uninstall everything from my own experience. Otherwise you have to buy the international version of some devices to escape the carrier bloat from U.S. carriers.

 

[wally]

Motor pure editions are bloat free

 

[nyc_rock]

Almost all OEM's do make their phones available direct. Some are easier to find than others. Samsung, Sony and LG phones can be bought from many legit websites. They sell the international unlocked variants. You just have to make sure that each phone supports your carriers LTE bands. Moto sells their "Pure Editions" which are unlocked and void of carrier bloat. HTC does the same thing. Both are sold direct from the OEM.

Some of these arent direct from the OEM, but the on line stores have return policy's which are generally as good as the US Carriers. The only draw back is that the OEM warranties are not always honored. I have purchased off these on-line stores and I can tell you, its a great experience. If I can help it, I always try and not buy from the carriers directly.

 

[Almeuit]

Yep -- The Moto X Pure Edition will be on sale here soon. It is a fully unlocked phone that works on all carriers .

 

[cgardnervt]

Moto is what you wanna look at!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thejesse]

Motorola, Nexus, OnePlus, Sony, Asus Zenfone 2, Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3... It's always been possible to buy unlocked, carrier-free phones for GSM networks. The only difference is, now there are more, better, options than ever before.

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