South Korean tech giant Samsung has said that it will cut down on the ads revealed in its smartphones, as per a news report by Korean information outlet Yonhap, followed by a confirmation by the company itself. In an official statement, Samsung says that it has drop the commercials on proprietary apps, as well as Samsung Pay, Samsung Climate, and Samsung Theme applications. The change will be carried out over the coming months by the end of this year, says the firm.
A Much-Needed Breather?
While all Samsung smartphones come equipped with the Android, the tech giant does tweak all its products using its “One UI,” which is where Samsung’s own set of packed-in apps come from. These apps contain a number of of big banner ads, some of which can be really annoying, considering how they cover the top of the app, concealing app logos and navigation guidelines. Other products/apps known to carry such ads include Samsung Health, Bixby Weather. Even worse are the notification ads, which display notifications to lure users into installing new apps or purchasing new gadgets.
This could be a massive breather for the thousands and millions of people who use Samsung phones, since the advertisements can often prove to be a nuisance, especially when one is forced to see them even after paying around $1000 while buying a smartphone.
Believe It When You See It
At the same time, not everyone seems convinced that the company doesn’t still have some tricks up its sleeve, since it doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to hiding ads. For starters, even now, Samsung is known to have hidden adverts in many places that its latest statement doesn’t cover. Still, one must not forget that the decision to remove the ads has been taken following consumer feedback, after all.
Nevertheless, should Samsung actually take down the adverts, the move will be in favour of its market position, especially since the situation is already messy owing to the presence of two app stores in every Samsung smartphone, one which belongs to Samsung, and the other being Android’s Google Play Store.
One might argue that even Google displays ads over major apps, but there’s actually three differences that make the situation more favourable for the US-based tech biggie. The first is that its adverts usually occupy only major apps, like YouTube and Search, instead of every other app. Moreover, notification ads are not displayed, and, most of all, the services are free.
All in all, there does remain quite some time before we get to see if Samsung does well on its claims, and it is likely that the difference will be noted in the upcoming Galaxy S22.
