They may not be the nuisance they are here in Kenya as they are in other markets around the globe but, for Samsung smartphone users in the country, they should have shown up a few times. We are talking about the ads that have been on Samsung smartphones for a while now.
Now, going forward, they might be a thing of the past.
According to a SamMobile report, it is not just users who have been irked by the ad situation on Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones over the last few years. Samsung’s own employees, too, have not been at ease with the development, leading to an assurance from the company’s head of its mobile business, TM Roh, that the ads will be done away with.
No specific timeline has been given in the reports quoting the happenings but we can only hope that that will happen soon.
Ads on Samsung devices became prevalent about 2 years ago when they started popping up in various markets on Samsung’s top-of-the-line smartphones like those in the Galaxy S series. The ads are usually in Samsung’s pre-installed applications but, once in a while, they also show up in the notification shade, especially from Samsung itself trying to woo existing users of Samsung devices to get newly unveiled ones (some people don’t consider these as ads).
In recent years, Android has allowed users to turn off notifications from several apps. While this may work for some third-party apps (like, for instance, I have done this with some necessary evil: XShare), turning off notifications for a stock app like the weather app, for instance, maybe counterproductive. There won’t be an alert for impending showers/a storm, when one badly needs it. Thus, a total withdrawal by whoever is pushing them is perhaps the best way to mend things.
Android device makers have increasingly turned to software services to make additional income in the face of slim margins from the devices they sale as well as, in recent years, a decline in shipments as the market became saturated. Many Asian smartphone brands, like Xiaomi and the Transsion brands that dominate the African smartphone market, use the ads, which are terribly annoying, as a form of subsidizing the devices themselves.
Two years ago, Xiaomi promised to go slow on the ads it served on its devices. Tecno and Infinix smartphones continue being a haven of intrusive – and, often, annoying – advertising.
Will more companies follow Samsung’s lead?
Featured image: @pranavchaparala on Twitter
Inline image: @CoolestTechBoi1 on Twitter
