When companies want to make a new phone or tablet and use Google Android as an operating system there are certain apps that have to be installed as part of the agreement. This is why when you buy a new device there are often two or three pages of apps when you take it out of the box for the first time. This will all change in the near future as Google is relaxing restrictions on this sort of thing.
Google Play Games, Google Play Books, Google+ and Google Newsstand now join the ranks with Google Earth and Google Keep as apps that aren’t a required part of the Google applications package. If you direly need these apps, you can just download them manually from the Google Play Store.
I like the fact that there will be less bloatware on future phones, but this won’t stop carriers from installing their own programs.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.