Database Users

[Q] Do most Android users not download paid apps?

I'm working on a couple Android apps and haven't yet decided if I'd like to charge for some (something small like .99 or 1.99 USD), or make them free but have ads in them. I was leaning towards charging for them, but I noticed that Angry birds is a paid app on the iPhone, whereas the Android version is free and has ads. I thought this was interesting and I'm curious whether iPhone users are more interested in paid apps than Android users are. Anyone know anything about this?

They made Angry Birds available for free because they want everyone to play it, they are gonna make a paid-app later that removes the ads. I would gladly pay for that game even if I can get it for free.
So I actually don't think that iPhone users is more interesting in paid-apps than Android users.
Make one free app with ads and then have a paid-version that removes the adds, that way everyone can download and use it whether they are in a country with or without paid-apps. Or you can make a "premium" app that has more features than the free one. Just a couple of suggestions
When paid-apps wasn't available in Sweden, I got so frustrated on apps that were only available for paid-apps-countrys and had no free alternative with ads or less features and stuff.
Hope this helps.
EDIT:
And remember, if the apps are good quality they will probably sell, people don't want to pay for apps that look like crap and have no functionality. And also, have screenshots in Market because people want to be ale to check out how the apps looks and stuff before they make a purchase or download it

I used to try crippleware/nagware/adware on my PC and use a lot of it on my phone. I don't need a lot of apps so I don't buy many but I try hundreds.
Over the years, I have acquired lots of apps for my WinMo phone, many of which I still miss, INCLUDING A SIMPLE "PHONE TO OUTLOOK" APP! Make that app happen on Android and I will pay for it AND I won't mind iif you want to still collect ad revenue from it.

I bought all apps that were available as adware to remove the ads. Half my apps are paid apps. If the price is reasonable I have no problem paying for the app and supporting the developer.

I myself will only pay for what I feel are essential apps or if I feel the developer really just loves the community; I don't generally mind ads, but sometimes will be so annoyed i will buy the paid version.
Apps ive paid for up to this point:
Launcher Pro
Root Explorer
Rom Manager
Better Keyboard (Before i had swype)
Widget Locker
Set CPU
Chomp SMS (Really wish I didn't as the developer seems to be very confrontational with users)
I have donated to the following:
Smooth Calendar
Anderweb
and a few others ive sent a few dollars to for being supportive and not berrating their customers for not wanting to pay.

I do pay for apps if the price is reasonable . I think the most I have paid for an app is ~5 bucks

I've bought 3 apps for my phone so far. LauncherPro, BeautifulWidgets and SNesoid. Both Snesoid and LauncherPro have "trial" versions with limited functionality (but unlimited usage), whereas BW you just have to flat-out pay for.
I am definitely more inclined to purchase an app if I have chance to try it out first, if for no other reason than to make sure that it works correctly on my phone before I buy it, so having a locked-down version for free (and I mean, leave out some features for PRO users only), as well as maybe ads is probably a good move. that way you might get some money from ads in the free version, and a lump sum if the app is purchased.
Zeb

panguin said:
Right. Cause **** all those people who put in time and effort to make my phone do the things I want it to do, right? Bunch of no good leeching assholes. How DARE they try and collect recompense for all their hard work!
/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree 100%. I've paid for about 10 apps thus far and not just to remove ads, but to support the developer's efforts.

Yeah ive bought a lot of things, and like they are saying make a paid version and a trail to show people how it is if they like they will pay.

ya...i buy too.....
my phone
i`ve spend ~400€ on my phone and now spend more for apps?! no...not me!
one of the things who lead me to buy an android was the "open source thing".
i won`t ever buy an app for it!
allways search for a open source app that suits me instead of buying something.
ya, ya, ya...we must pay for all hard work and bla, bla, bla...so...by an WM or an iPhone
look at the example given. Angry Birds.
another? swype...allways beta
just my 5cents

i buy paid games and launcher pro plus as well ans a few other apps that are
payable and to all you people that say you support the xda but you have unpaid full app like pirating them you people suck. if you support something you shouldn't feel bad sending a few bucks to the dev.

rendeiro2005 said:
ya...i buy too.....
my phone
i`ve spend ~400€ on my phone and now spend more for apps?! no...not me!
one of the things who lead me to buy an android was the "open source thing".
i won`t ever buy an app for it!
allways search for a open source app that suits me instead of buying something.
ya, ya, ya...we must pay for all hard work and bla, bla, bla...so...by an WM or an iPhone
look at the example given. Angry Birds.
another? swype...allways beta
just my 5cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yet you have a 'Donate to me' button. Well no support for you I guess.
I will always pay for an app if it's something I need or want. I generally like to buy from apps made by devs not companies who charge outrageous amounts for something. Like Documents To Go, if I had the knowledge I'd make the exact same thing for free and I guarantee people would donate to support my effort instead of charging $16, $17, $25 for an app.
So far I've bought:
SetCPU (even though you can get it for free in the thread here)
Rom Manager
'File Copy'
SU File Explorer
Mini Info
Some LWP's
Some games
and about 7 or so other apps

For me it's simple - I will spend my money on a good, quality app. I've got quite a few apps, and I love the fact that Google's market gives you the 24 hour trial period - so how can you go wrong?

I've paid for a lot of apps. About 90% of them I don't even use anymore.
I wouldn't charge too much for it. That would only lead to people paying, copying the apk, then refunding... Sadly.

ante0 said:
I've paid for a lot of apps. About 90% of them I don't even use anymore.
I wouldn't charge too much for it. That would only lead to people paying, copying the apk, then refunding... Sadly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, I had never thought of that before

JGeZau said:
Wow, I had never thought of that before
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good thing though is that they don't get updates...
More and more apps use license check now though, forcing you to redownload the app (Which I have noticed everytime I restore apps using Titanium backup). Which in that case wouldn't be possible since you refunded it
Google should make some license check too, everytime you open up the market it should check for apps that need licenses (i.e. paid apps), if none is found it could force you to uninstall it and not let you use the market until you have done so.

I think most people on this site are more willing to pay for apps then if you looked at some other forums because this is a forum for developers and they know the hard work that goes into these products. I buy a lot of apps, most under $3.00, If I don't find an app I want then I buy a soda there's not much of a price difference and people buy sodas millions of times a day so I don't see why so many people are so hesitant to buy apps. I think there needs to be an Android gift card like an iTunes card but that's for a different thread.

ante0 said:
Good thing though is that they don't get updates...
More and more apps use license check now though, forcing you to redownload the app (Which I have noticed everytime I restore apps using Titanium backup). Which in that case wouldn't be possible since you refunded it
Google should make some license check too, everytime you open up the market it should check for apps that need licenses (i.e. paid apps), if none is found it could force you to uninstall it and not let you use the market until you have done so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I imagined they wouldn't get updates, but I wouldn't do it, I support Android development

I have paid for three applications, because they were the single best applications that delivered the most functionality.

This post has got me wondering, what sort of money would you expect to get from adverts and if there was an ad blocker installed on the phone would you still get paid? In other words would you get paid for having the advert built in or just on a paid per click basis?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Amazon App Store Rocks

In case you haven't heard they give out a free paid app every day! Yesterday was Picsay Pro and today is Wolfram Alpha! Both great apps! I high suggest installing the app store and checking every day I'm not really sure what happens when the app get's updated by the developer though.

I uninstalled it because I was offended that it was notifying me about updates even though I hadn't run the app since a reboot...
I hate that presumption that my cpu and bandwidth is free for the taking, or that I even care that an app that I haven't run for a few days has been updated...
Also, I had installed a free app from amazon app store, and it wouldn't run after I uninstalled amazon app store (reasonable I suppose).
Otherwise, I buy a lot of stuff from amazon - I'm a loyal customer of theirs...
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App

I think the Amazon Appstore is a great alternative to the Android Market, but I'm glad we have both.
The Appstore is much more like Apple's App Store (and not just in name only). Amazon reviews and tests all applications, and if they don't work as advertised, are buggy, or have security issues, they get denied. One one hand, it's nice to know you can trust your app downloads, especially when there have been some rather notable security problems with Market apps.
On the other hand, there's nothing stopping Amazon from denying legitimate apps like Apple has a habit of doing. That said, I haven't seen any evidence they're doing that, and generally speaking I think Amazon is a rather trustworthy company (see the platform-agnostic Kindle software and their willingness to go toe-to-toe with record labels to give us Cloud access to our own music).
Oh, and ironically, the Appstore's search engine is about a bajillion times better than the Market's. I'll never understand why Google's Android Market search engine is so awful.
Of course, the free apps -- which are just discounted to $0 from the full price for a day, so they're handled exactly the same as a real purchase as far as updates go -- are just the cherry on top. But what a cherry. At first, I was worried they would just go the easy route and give out ****e apps. But that definitely hasn't been the case (with the exception of some "meh" games). In the slightly over two weeks the Appstore's been available, I've nabbed legitimately top-shelf apps like Shazam Encore, SoundHound Infinity, SwiftKey Keyboard, PicSay Pro, Wolfram Alpha, Weatherbug Elite, and a whole bunch of games, many of which are pretty darn good, like Fruit Ninja and Backbreaker Football. That's a lot of money saved (like $30 for apps I've listed here alone).

Amazon App store is GREAT
We need a second option from Google

I like how there aren't problems downloading apps and apps will correctly queue for download. With the Android market on 2.2 it will sit there and try to download multiple apps only to either error out on the download or do a continuous installing thing that you have to cancel anyway.

Darn I missed picsay!! How did that happen!!
One bad thing about Amazon...yesterday I went to play Angry Birds Rio, and it gave me an error saying that it didn't have a network connection to verify my purchase.
So if you are in Airplane mode, or don't have a connection, it sounds like the apps from Amazon won't run. Not an issue most of the time, but annoying nonetheless.

My morning ritual now involves checking the Amazon App Store.

does anyone know if you can transfer apps already purchased onto the same phone if we flash a new rom? i'm assuming you can, but the data saves might disappear

Apps can be installed on unlimited (I'm not sure about that, but I've got it going on 2) phones. Data might be transferable through Titanium but I've not actually tried.

ah cool. hopefully TiBU data restoring won't cause force closes because i know it sometimes does

Few Good Apps for Official 2.3 rom users (and others to)

Hello guys,
For those using the official 2.3 rom I would like to shar some apps I find very useful and I think some might also miss from custom roms:
- QuickPic
Very good Image and Video Gallery and almost identical to MIUI's.
The Gallery available in stock rom is just a big failure and almost nude of options.
This one is just absolutly complete and good!
- Quick Boot
Miss the 4 way reboot menu from custom roms? Well not anymore....
- Moboplayer
A powerful video player.
- Go Launcher EX
For me the best Laucher. Very custobizable, easy and fast.
Also, many many many free apps, widgets, themes, etc
- TunIn Radio
Very good online radio app.
Well, hope you enjoy.
If you wish to share your apps with others just post

Druida69 said:
- Go Launcher EX
For me the best Laucher. Very custobizable, easy and fast.
Also, many many many free apps, widgets, themes, etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using the Launcher Pro, but them I tried the 360 Lancher (it's chinese but we have a english version on XDA) and I like it a lot. It's very light, smoth and give you nice effects and themes...
360 Launcher Beta 1.5.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1345601
360 Battery Guard (Battery monitor, saving mode, widget etc)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19491411

personally, i will not suggest you to use any applications developed by 360safe company. if you know what that company is, you will say goodbye to 360safe - an evil company.
Sent from my U8800 using XDA App

why is 360 a bad company?

I'm using this alternative launcher:
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.ss.launcher&feature=search_result
it's fast, light and highly customisable.
Also I'd like more ligux tools, instead of quick boot for reboot menu:

lovetide said:
personally, i will not suggest you to use any applications developed by 360safe company. if you know what that company is, you will say goodbye to 360safe - an evil company.
Sent from my U8800 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please explain it to us?
I really like this launcher...

Nice launcher sslauncher
Thanks .
Sent from my u8800 using XDA App

Druida69 said:
why is 360 a bad company?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sr21 said:
Can you please explain it to us?
I really like this launcher...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My opinion will be subjective, so please read the following stories with your clear mind. If you still trust 360Safe/Qihoo company, you can still use their products.
Here's some true stories occured in China internet history:
An evil man - HongYi Zhou(周鸿祎)
Evil #1: At the early internet age in China, there was a IE browser helper object called 3721 Internet Assistant - the most notorious malware developed by 3721 company - HongYi Zhou's company. Evil behavior: force install, hard to uninstall, ad popup, etc...
Evil #2: Yahoo China acquired 3721 company at 2003, and 3721 Internet Assistant renamed to Yahoo Assistant. It should change to nice under a big company, right? NO! it still act as evil as it was, all the evil behaviors on 3721 still exist on Yahoo Assistant.
Evil & Ridiculous #3: Zhou left Yahoo later, and become CEO of an "unsafe" company - 360Safe, then 360 claim Yahoo Assistant is malware! What kind of man (especially a business man) will do that? You created a son and raise it with your full energy, then one day, you said your son is a freak, and you will kill it, an evil man did this! I think this touched the bottom line of moral as a human being, and Zhou did it.
An evil company - Qihoo/360Safe company
3QWar2010: Year 2010, the QQ-360 war (we called ThankYou/3Q war by transliteration) was initiated by Qihoo/360Safe company. Basically, 360PrivacyGuard monitored any process named QQ.exe even if you rename notepad.exe to QQ.exe, and give its users an alert said QQ.exe is scanning your files etc... and 360QQGuard act like a trojan, it inject QQ software to remove advertisment in QQ software and blocked autoupdate service of QQ and replace the default browser launcher in QQ to their own 360Browser. What kind of "safe" company did such an unsafe trojan software? 360 did! If you ask why, I will say because their boss is Zhou. Fortunately, Qihoo lost the lawsuit at last.
I won't say "once a criminal, always a criminal", but I would say "dog eat ****, it never changed, it never will"(狗改不了吃屎 in Chinese). If you're an Android fans before and today you suddenly becomes an iPhone fans, you should check your dream first to see if you are 《Inception》ed by Leonardo before you're sure you really becomes an iPhone fans. That's my personal opinion on this company. For me, I never trust this man and this company, and you?
That's why I don't suggest you to use any software products developed by 360, personally.
Apology for my bad English, wish you can understand it.

lovetide said:
My opinion will be subjective, so please read the following stories with your clear mind. If you still trust 360Safe/Qihoo company, you can still use their products.
Here's some true stories occured in China internet history:
An evil man - HongYi Zhou(周鸿祎)
Evil #1: At the early internet age in China, there was a IE browser helper object called 3721 Internet Assistant - the most notorious malware developed by 3721 company - HongYi Zhou's company, evil behavior: force install, hard to uninstall, ad popup, etc.
Evil #2: Yahoo China acquied 3721 company at 2003, and 3721 Internet Assistant renamed to Yahoo Assistant, it should change to be nice under a big company, right? NO! it still act like evil as it was, all the evil behavior on 3721 still exist on Yahoo Assistant.
Evil & Ridiculous #3: Zhou leaved Yahoo later, and become CEO of an "unsafe" company 360Safe, then 360 claim Yahoo Assistant is malware! What kind of man (especially a business man) will do that? You created a son and raise it with your full energy, then one day, you said your son is a freak, and you will kill it, an evil man did this! I think this touched the bottom line of moral as a human being, and Zhou did it.
An evil company - Qihoo/360Safe company
3QWar2010: Year 2010, the QQ-360 war (we called ThankYou/3Q war by transliteration) was initiated by Qihoo/360Safe company, basically, 360PrivacyGuard monitored any process named QQ.exe even if you rename notepad.exe to QQ.exe, and give its users an alert said QQ.exe is scanning your files etc... and 360QQGuard act like a trojan to inject QQ software to remove advertisment in QQ software and blocked QQ's autoupdate service and replace the default browser launcher in QQ to their own 360Browser. What kind of "safe" company did such a trojan-like unsafe software? 360 did! If you ask why, I will say because their boss is Zhou. Fortunately, Qihoo losed on the lawsuit at last.
I won't say "once a criminal, always a criminal", but I would say "dog eat ****, it never changed, it never will"(狗改不了吃屎 in Chinese). If you're an Anroid fans before and today you suddenly becomes an iPhone fans, you should check your dream first to see if you are 《Inception》ed by Leonardo before you're sure you becomes an iiPhone fans. That's my personal opinion on this company. For me, I never trust this man and this company, and you?
That's why I don't suggest you to use any software products developed by 360, personally.
Apology for my English, wish you can understand it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your explanation

Even though I don't know anything about HongYi Zhou(周鸿祎), I have to agree with him about the 360safe company. I've been working with computers since back in the 286(80286) days, both software and hardware wise. I'm also an American living in China, and I've used a lot of "chinese" computers while I've been here. This 360Safe software is really strange stuff. They use it in place of IE here (not that I like IE) and for other stuff. I don't know what it is about this software, it just acts strange and my years of computer experience tell me to stay away from it.
Let me give you an example, the one that sealed the deal for me. There is an android app by 360safe. I won't write the name because it's probably banned on XDA forums and I'd rather not get banned for writing it. It is a program for downloading android warez and will check for new update on those warez. It's essentially an illegal version of Android market, they even say so themselves:
translated description of this software:
Description
360 treasures, the most secure software download platform Android
360 treasures android version v1.2.2 update:
1 to optimize boot speed;
(2) interface to modify some of the details;
3 Recommended section to add the latest on-line;
4 to modify part of the bug.
360 treasures android version is 360 Android's new mobile phone software for launch platform.
Here's a variety of software 20,000 360 Security Center after all testing is the most secure software download platform. 360 treasures every moment will be to recommend a variety of applications and the most fiery of the most fun of the game, you play the machine up to a fashion person. Built-in management capabilities, allowing you to easily manage phone software, updated, uninstalled.
We provide you with the safest, most stable channel for download, and strive to make the user the most assured and best use of the Android software market. I hope you can find a treasure box in like, fun baby.
Related words: software download, android software downloads, e-marketing, application market
The same market: android market, Android market, official market, security market wisdom, machine front market, superior billion market, android black market

With huawei handset, if you are like me, bit tired that every custom rom has that one thing that does not work, or even if you are extremely like me and decided in the end to just keep the original .32 kernel Froyo, Root Explorer or ES filemanager on rooted system is a must.
All those huawei's default apps, crap, so much crap, and some even not usable for international users. Worse even, you cannot uninstall any of it. And some things are confusing, like having a huawei music, and android default music app. Personally I removed both replacing music with newest google music. I personally like rootexplorer for the job, you can explore inside APK files and find what ones have .huawei in their com line so you do not accidentally delete actually useful piece of software.
Thanks for the tip with quickpic. I really long after briefly trying MIUI wanted a seperate app for gallery (I would like option to choose manner the pictures are sorted by) - and now I probably found it.

Thanks all of you very much for these very usseful sharings and applications and programs...

QuickPic is fantastic app.
Thanks Druida69

quickpic,go launcher,player pro and moboplayer. Favourite Four

FriendCaster facebook is also a great app. If you check running apps you will se that official facebook app uses 24 or more MB of RAM and stays at running processes even when you dont use it while FriendCaster only uses 10MB and goes to cached processes if you dont use it. And it also has nicer UI than official app

thanks for quick boot i need this...

Tweetdeck
Pure News widget- choose your type of news you want to be updated form different websites

Gemini app manager its also a very good app t control autorun of applications

typci said:
Even though I don't know anything about HongYi Zhou(周鸿祎), I have to agree with him about the 360safe company. I've been working with computers since back in the 286(80286) days, both software and hardware wise. I'm also an American living in China, and I've used a lot of "chinese" computers while I've been here. This 360Safe software is really strange stuff. They use it in place of IE here (not that I like IE) and for other stuff. I don't know what it is about this software, it just acts strange and my years of computer experience tell me to stay away from it.
Let me give you an example, the one that sealed the deal for me. There is an android app by 360safe. I won't write the name because it's probably banned on XDA forums and I'd rather not get banned for writing it. It is a program for downloading android warez and will check for new update on those warez. It's essentially an illegal version of Android market, they even say so themselves:
translated description of this software:
Description
360 treasures, the most secure software download platform Android
360 treasures android version v1.2.2 update:
1 to optimize boot speed;
(2) interface to modify some of the details;
3 Recommended section to add the latest on-line;
4 to modify part of the bug.
360 treasures android version is 360 Android's new mobile phone software for launch platform.
Here's a variety of software 20,000 360 Security Center after all testing is the most secure software download platform. 360 treasures every moment will be to recommend a variety of applications and the most fiery of the most fun of the game, you play the machine up to a fashion person. Built-in management capabilities, allowing you to easily manage phone software, updated, uninstalled.
We provide you with the safest, most stable channel for download, and strive to make the user the most assured and best use of the Android software market. I hope you can find a treasure box in like, fun baby.
Related words: software download, android software downloads, e-marketing, application market
The same market: android market, Android market, official market, security market wisdom, machine front market, superior billion market, android black market
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may already heard that Apple banned Qihoo/360 from their App Store recently.
Apple Bans Qihoo Apps From iTunes App Store (penn-olson)
China’s Qihoo 360 Says Its Mobile Apps Removed From Apple Store (Bloomberg)
Qihoo 360: Apps Should Be Back On Apple App Store Shortly (The Wall Street Journal)

Is good to distribute other than play store like Amazon?

I want to increase more number of users for my application.
I planned to distribute on other store.Is it wroth?
Then how to advertise my app to user freely?
Mostly i post my application on Social networks and some android forum.
Is there any other way to advertise?
or
Your method of advertise?

I just got my game released on Samsung Apps, and on Amazon. They are both strict but Samsung apps is beyond strict. I haven't seen much results yet, i guess it takes some time.

Amazon?You can have a try,but don't expect too much.

you should try opera apps.
i was surprised when i saw my first results (got ~33% from gplay downloads there)

[Q] Just order my Z2 Tablet, need your advice

Hi all, just off the phone from Vodafone and purchased the Sony Z2 Tablet
Comes this Monday.
Just wondering if you guys can give my advise of personal use to weather I have just purchased the best tablet on the market.
I have looked at a few reviews and heard not much bad about this device. I was also wondering if anyone knows if 4.4.4 KitKat will be available in the future for this device.
I am also waiting on the Sony Xperia Z3 mobile coming out to upgrade, best specs i've seen available for a mobile (I know the note4 is pretty awesome specs, but not a big Samsung fan and the screen size is too big for my liking, 5.2 in' is my maximum)
Thanks in advance for your advice guys

Just quickly saw this tablet at local store and it looked pretty nice.
Without any knowledge whether 4.4.4. is coming to z2, i would say that you wont even miss it.
In my opinion 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 brings mostly security updates and not end user updates. But maybe someone can bring some more light into it.
But i think you made a good choice with Z2
---------- Post added at 09:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------
To addition you are already able to upgrade 4.4.4 through custom roms but that is another story

I have been using it almost every day since June, and I couldn't be happier. It works flawlessly, it is powerful, fast and smooth, it has no noticeable bugs, it is easily rooteable and customizable if you want. I don't miss anything in it. I am so glad I got the 32gb model...
Android 4.4.4 is coming, it has been already certified, I would bet in a couple of weeks it will be amongst us, first for the phone, and later for the tablet, but i don't care, as current fw works so well.
Enviado desde mi SGP512 mediante Tapatalk

Android 4.4.4 is been rolled out now for old models, apparently it will take a little longer for the z2 as Sony wants to add new features present in the new z3 to the z2 tablet
I have had a lot of phones and tablets in the past but this is my favourite, Sony's UI is great nearly stock but with handy features and looks nice. Its the first tablet where I didn't feel the need to install a custom ROM, plus the battery life is great and apparently may be better in the next update

Oh come on...nearly stock?!
Just because it's not as bloated as Touchwiz doesn't mean it's stock.
Sony also added a lot of bloatware that no one needs and that can not be deinstalled, just deactivated.
Xposed is also a must have for me.

Vaetheran2107 said:
Oh come on...nearly stock?!
Just because it's not as bloated as Touchwiz doesn't mean it's stock.
Sony also added a lot of bloatware that no one needs and that can not be deinstalled, just deactivated.
Xposed is also a must have for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya true I do use Nova launcher so I'm probably biased, I actually don't like the Sony launcher, can't change the margins, cant change font, or icon size and it looks a bit like a cartoonist

Also nova, but I meant all of Sony's apps

Vaetheran2107 said:
Oh come on...nearly stock?!
Just because it's not as bloated as Touchwiz doesn't mean it's stock.
Sony also added a lot of bloatware that no one needs and that can not be deinstalled, just deactivated.
Xposed is also a must have for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Er... you can simply root this device and 1. remove the bloatware (via Titanium Backup or a similar app) and 2. install Xposed.
Where is the problem???

Ofc there is some bloatware in this rom.
It is kind of stupid to blame Sony or any other brand for that.
Compared to the mainstream, we at XDA are a real small group of experienceed users,
who don't need that bloat.
But for the mainstream it has to be as easy as possible. So they install all possible needed sony-apps. And to be honest, Sony has to be stupid to stop doing this, cause it's an easy way to support their services and extra hardware like the ps4 or some tvs.
The ordinary user may loose interest upon the first two steps to use a Sony service.
1. Searching and finding the correct app
2. Installing and configure this app.
The working-out-of-the-box-feeling is most important for the mainstream I guess.
And to be honest... Sonys stock rom works perfectly for me and I don't care about the bloat.
Thinking back to my galaxy tab 2 and the laggy "performance" it had with stock... I love Sony
But to get the mainquestion answered.... You made a great deal. The z2 is an awesome tablet and at the moment I don't wanna switch to an other.
But maybe u have to wait a little for a new firmware to get the touchscreen issues fixed.
Or (what I have done) you use flashtool to get the things working with an user-provided stock rom.
Sent from my SGP511 using XDA Premium HD app

Oh, come on!, bloatware in Android is something of the past. Since 4.1, if i remember well, anybody can disable unwanted system apps, which at all effects is just like deleting them. As these apps are stored in system partition you won't recover free space by disabling them, and if you uninstall them via Titanium Backup, in a rooted device, the freed up space on system partition is useless for installing apps from the store anyway.
Also, as far as i know Sony doesn't include any app which takes too much resources from the system, just their Music/video/games shops, smart connect, some nice image editors, OfficeSuite, Xperia Link, TrackID, Sony Select (the only one i have disabled)... Not a deal breaker to me, they are useful apps, not like Samsung is doing bloating their devices with 2 GB worth of useless apps, constantly poping up with ads.
Oh, and i like Sony's stock launcher more than Google's launcher, i think they are near, buy sony's one looks better and more modern. I never liked the look of pure Android (GB, JB and KK).

You cannot disable all apps unless rooted and even if you disable them, some of them still run in the background and use resources.

SANGER_A2 said:
You cannot disable all apps unless rooted and even if you disable them, some of them still run in the background and use resources.
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For example?
Enviado desde mi SGP512 mediante Tapatalk

Phone

SANGER_A2 said:
Phone
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Ok, I've got to give my 2 cents here because I think this last post may be the very beginning of a possibly long and unnecessary discussion.
If and only IF you have one of the WiFi-only models and if and only IF those models include the Phone app it can be called bloatware (I don't own one of those models to know if they have the Phone/SMS Messaging/Contacts apps, mine is a 4G one).
But if you own a 4G Z2 Tablet, be that a SGP521, 541 or 551, then you should know that these tablets are phone-capable tablets, i.e. you can actually make phone calls over the standard mobile network, just like a smartphone, and that is meant as a feature, not bloatware.
You can call a bloatware any other apk in Sony's firmware that is not meant to be used as a system feature and there are indeed many of those in Sony's stock ROMs. To name a few that are in the app drawer, you have OfficeSuite, Xperia Link, TrackID, Sony Select, like @RoberM mentioned, just like you have a few of Google's own bloatware, such as Play Games, Play Music, Play Movies, Google+ and Hangout, to name a few. You can even say that AR Effect, Infoeye, Face Unlock and so many others are bloatware. All of these apps have some sort of functionality but they are in no way essential for any of the tablet's features (unlike Phone). Hell, with the exception of Xperia Link, I personally delete each and every one of the apps mentioned in this paragraph with TB (it is actually one the very first things I do after rooting my device).
If you go deeper inside the system you'll also find some bloatware that are not accessible on the app drawer (in other words, you'll have to go deep with Titanium Backup or search for them in Settings -> Applications or delete them directly on system/app or /priv-app folders). To name a few, you have the Wikipedia/lyrics/karaoke extensions (don't really know which app needs them, but I've always deleted them), you have com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks and partnerbookmarks.res.overlay (which add that useless Sony folder on Chrome's Favorites tab) and so on.
The fact of the matter is that all of these apps I've just called bloatware can be disabled without any problem to the OS. But the Phone apk on a phone-capable device is not (the same goes to Contacts or SMS).
And I have to agree with both RoberM and @schurgatzi when they say that 1- arguing about bloatware is a thing of the past when we can easily disable them; 2- mainstream users don't really care or want to care about this things, so for them it is better to have the app and not need it than to need the app and not have (apps they don't need are just put in a folder labeled "useless crap" and left in the last tab of the app drawer); and 3 (and probably most important one)- we on XDA cannot, under any circumstance, think of ourselves as mainstream users - the very fact that we are here having a simple discussion over what is bloatware and what is not, or the simple fact that we spent a few minutes of our time searching on how to get rid of these bloatwares is proof that we are not mainstream users. Mainstream users (and this counts for every-single-body I know) simply don't care about these things (and I honestly think this is the main reason why iPhones are so damn popular and they'll continue to be in the future).
I'm not kidding. The look on my friends' face (some of which I know for more than 10 years) when one of them couldn't remember his WiFi password and I found it by opening the wpa_supplicant.conf file on the data/misc/wifi folder was absolutely priceless (the geek inside of me rejoiced for a while).

SANGER_A2 said:
Phone
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Are you calling "Phone app" bloatware in a calling capable device?, or are you saying that you can disable "Phone app" in settings menu but it still uses resources?. Anyway... Good for you!:good:

RoberM said:
Are you calling "Phone app" bloatware in a calling capable device?, or are you saying that you can disable "Phone app" in settings menu but it still uses resources?. Anyway... Good for you!:good:
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Both. For me.
I don't know why you're being such a d!ck about this. I offered some helpful, constructive information into this thread as a further explanation why some people (including me) may want to root. If you don't want to root your device, I won't attack you about it. Most users here will not have the LTE version of this tablet and will have no need for the phone module that runs (even if you root and disable it) all the time. If there is a feature that is installed on a device that I will never use: it is bloatware to me, even if it isn't bloatware to everyone. I have my own method of removing about half of the stock apps on this device because I personally don't use them.
---------- Post added at 07:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Tiu Fiu said:
Ok, I've got to give my 2 cents here because I think this last post may be the very beginning of a possibly long and unnecessary discussion.
...
I'm not kidding. The look on my friends' face (some of which I know for more than 10 years) when one of them couldn't remember his WiFi password and I found it by opening the wpa_supplicant.conf file on the data/misc/wifi folder was absolutely priceless (the geek inside of me rejoiced for a while).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I didn't notice this post until I posted my rant. But I agree that it's not worth getting into a flamewar about bloatware!
But the reason I'm not replying is because WOW! I can't believe that file isn't encrypted! Considering that android is basically Linux (which I have a lot of experience of and always assumed it was totally secure) I always assumed that all OS's would encrypt this and hide it away from the user. It lead me on quite an interesting search to see how Linux and Windows hide/secure them. Basically, they don't! It's scary to see how easy it is for anyone with a bootdisk and physical access to a device can gain access to your wifi network.
Thanks for leading me to learn something new today! :good: (I know that sounded kinda sarcastic, but it honestly wasn't).

SANGER_A2 said:
Unfortunately, I didn't notice this post until I posted my rant. But I agree that it's not worth getting into a flamewar about bloatware!
But the reason I'm not replying is because WOW! I can't believe that file isn't encrypted! Considering that android is basically Linux (which I have a lot of experience of and always assumed it was totally secure) I always assumed that all OS's would encrypt this and hide it away from the user. It lead me on quite an interesting search to see how Linux and Windows hide/secure them. Basically, they don't! It's scary to see how easy it is for anyone with a bootdisk and physical access to a device can gain access to your wifi network.
Thanks for leading me to learn something new today! :good: (I know that sounded kinda sarcastic, but it honestly wasn't).
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Hehehehehe the very same thing I thought the first time I learned that. One would normally think this kind of data would be secure somehow (encrypted to say the least) due to its sensitive status. And this is not Android, Windows or Linux's, it's all of them... They basically don't protect WiFi passwords at all. And I'm glad I could share some knowledge today

Tiu Fiu said:
Hehehehehe the very same thing I thought the first time I learned that. One would normally think this kind of data would be secure somehow (encrypted to say the least) due to its sensitive status. And this is not Android, Windows or Linux's, it's all of them... They basically don't protect WiFi passwords at all. And I'm glad I could share some knowledge today
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL. Although, I work at a school where we have a Windows domain and all the laptops run Windows 7 and they've been set using active directory policy so you can't view the password just by clicking the "show password" button, even for me as a domain admin I can't do it. I'm gonna try one of the wifi key viewer apps tomorrow and see if the file/registry entry is encrypted or not.