Smartphone Cleanup Grows, Amid Quality Concerns
I usually have more criticism than praise for China’s bureaucratic telecoms regulator, but today I have to commend the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for a ground-breaking move that other countries would be wise to follow in the fast-moving smartphone space. That move will require smartphone makers to list all the apps that come pre-installed on their models, much the way that food makers list the ingredients that their products contain. While the move looks good for consumers and the industry’s overall development, smartphone makers are unlikely to embrace this measure that will tell consumers about all the unwanted and often invasive apps that come included on their new smartphones.
This latest move is part of the MIIT’s broader recent campaign to clean up China’s unruly smartphone sector, which will surpass the US this year to become the world’s largest. The explosive growth has been fueled by a new generation of cheap models costing as little as $100, many of those often loaded down with useless and even invasive apps that may harass and even spy on users. Word of the MIIT’s latest move also comes as a new survey shows that quality is one of the biggest consumer complaints towards smartphones made by domestic manufacturers.
Let’s start this look at China’s fast-evolving smartphone space with the latest MIIT directive, which will require a much higher degree of disclosure from all smartphone manufacturers in China. According to the latest reports, all of those brands will need to publish a list that says what apps come pre-installed on their models. Those lists should be included in service manuals or on company websites for consumer reference. (English article)
I’m encouraged that the MIIT is making this requirement, though I think it should require that information be posted on boxes containing new smartphones. That’s how it works for food manufacturers, which always list their ingredients on each product’s label, making it easy for consumers to find. By allowing companies to put the information in product manuals and on websites, there’s a good chance that many consumers will never see the information and won’t realize how much useless and even harmful apps are being pre-installed on their new smartphones.
This latest requirement comes just 2 weeks after media reported that all smartphone makers would need to submit lists of apps that they planned to pre-load on their smartphones for the MIIT’s approval. The regulator would then have the right to approve or veto each app. (previous post) While some might say these moves look like overly aggressive regulation, I fully support such measures as an important step to creating a healthy environment for longer-term development of this promising industry.
Too often, Chinese companies engage in unscrupulous business practices to quickly gain market share in emerging industries. While many of those practices may technically be legal, they often undermine consumer confidence and lead to market turbulence that doesn’t benefit anyone over the longer term. I suspect that developers of these unwanted apps pay big money to have their software included on new smartphones, often creating nuisances for buyers.
The MIIT’s new moves come as a new survey shows that Chinese consumers see quality as the single biggest problem in domestically manufactured smartphones. One-third of all people said quality was a problem with such smartphones, according to the survey. (Chinese article) The biggest problems after that involved external product design and difficulties with product use, which both were cited by about 15 percent of respondents. This new MIIT campaign should be a good first step to cleaning up the industry; but I also suspect we will also see a more market-oriented clean-up in the next year or two, as buyers increasingly shun brands with quality problems and unwanted apps.
Bottom line: The MIIT’s new disclosure rules for pre-installed smartphone apps look like a good first step toward cleaning up the increasingly unruly sector.
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