Nowadays, there are more and more local applications created. In terms of quality, a number of those apps are even comparable internationally. Just take a look at PicMix, a local application which was initially created to fill in the lack of Instagram on BlackBerry, which eventually gained 18 million users globally. The fact though, most Indonesians aren’t aware of these local apps. Bundling local apps or having them pre-loaded on certain devices could be an alternative to keep developing local applications.
Of course, getting apps pre-loaded on devices isn’t an easy task. It requires a series of mutually beneficial partnership between the software developer and the smartphone vendor. This is not easy considering not all device makers are open to pre-loading applications, especially when the content being offered isn’t considered interesting.
DailySocial and the movie schedule app Movreak was once pre-loaded on the Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows 7. We weren’t able to determine the responses from the users to the apps being installed on the phone but they were easily removed if people weren’t ken on having them.
The pre-loaded applications clearly should be relevant to the consumers’ needs or they will find them as nothing more than bloat or excessive software that they won’t ever use and the apps will end up only taking valuable storage space. It wouldn’t be wise if consumers aren’t given the ability to remove these apps if they aren’t going to use them. Besides, once a person purchases a device, they have the rights as to its use so if removing an app requires a jailbreak or root access, it’s only going to make things complicated.
A device maker is expected conduct a market research to determine which apps are appropriate to be pre-loaded on its devices and perhaps the government could act as a facilitator to bridge the partnership between application developers and the gadget manufacturers in order to increase people’s awareness on local applications.
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