April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] An advocacy group has raised its voice against the Ministry of the Interior, which allegedly forced tech giant Samsung Electronics to preinstall its app, dubbed Government 3.0, on the upcoming Galaxy Note model.

The Green Consumer Network in Korea claimed the preinstallation of the app would cause inconvenience for consumers and reverse discrimination against the domestic smartphone-maker.

“The ministry said it had consulted with Samsung to preinstall the app on the smartphone, but it arm-twisted it to follow the order rather than consultations,” the civic group said.

Launched three years ago to promote the Korean government’s policies, Government 3.0 has hit 30,000 downloads so far, which the GCN claimed a “complete failure.”

Preinstalling the app also goes against the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning’s initiative to reduce the number of preinstalled apps on smartphones being sold in the nation.

Many consumers have long complained about default mobile apps that are mostly useless, but consume battery and memory space.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)