India vs China: updates and pre-installed apps are in the sights

Do you remember when theIndia blocked something like 300 smartphone apps area of China? For some months now, the rivalry between the two Asian giants has intensified, also due to the geopolitical tensions that they have experienced in their history. And you know, tensions of this kind often (and not willingly) have repercussions on the market, as demonstrated by the actions taken by India against its uncomfortable neighbour. Also due to the pandemic, technology producers have sparked their interest in Indian soil, whether we are talking about sales or production, also and above all in the case of Apple. But the market is largely made up of Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO e vivo, against which the Indian government continues to rail in various ways, as in the latest case related to pre-installed apps.

India wants to block pre-installed apps and check for updates, and looks to China

The Indian Ministry of IT has in fact established new regulations that will require the various smartphone manufacturers not to abuse the pre-installation of apps on their devices, and therefore allow it to be uninstalled, as is already the case in Europe. According to an Indian official, the reason is related to National security"pre-installed apps can be a security weakness, and we want to make sure that no foreign nation, including China, exploits it“. However, this is not an easy procedure to implement, given that this would lead to many problems for software development, with manufacturers who would find themselves having to look for alternative solutions for basic functions such as app store, camera and so on; not counting the pre-installed apps according to the various agreements that the producers make with the various Meta, Google, etc.

There is even talk of the imposition of operating system update checks before their release, an operation never seen before and which could compromise not poco the telephone sector in what is now the second largest market in the world and where half of the telephones sold are of Chinese origin. A government document reports that “most of the smartphones used in India have pre-installed apps/bloatware which pose serious privacy and information security issues“; document that would have arisen from a closed-door meeting with the companies involved, i.e. Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and vivo, which they would have one year to adjust.