Operators sign up to service that installs apps AFTER you’ve purchased the phone

The bloatware that ships pre-installed on phones could be about to get a whole lot worse.

AndroidPit reports that a service from Digital Turbine known as Ignite is being touted to mobile operators. It allows networks to force install apps on an owner’s device remotely at any point after purchase.

The appeal for operators is that it will allow them to ship out handsets faster because they will not need to authorise or develop in-house apps prior to release. Instead, they can sell handsets with little to no bloatware pre-installed and then add in content as and when it’s developed or purchased by partners.

US networks T-Mobile and Verizon are reportedly already on board.

The amount of bloatware – a term that refers to commercial applications placed onto handsets that are rarely of any use, often clog up the OS and can rarely be uninstalled – is already a point of consternation among many buyers. The idea of this being remotely added to will very likely be poorly received.

Bloatware has also been blamed for the growing interest in ‘rotting’ smartphones – a process that wipes devices clean of the software they are shipped with and installs a vanilla version of Android.