It's about time, Apple.
The company is considering allowing users to remove certain apps that come — and stay — pre-installed with iOS.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is "looking at" ways to allow people to remove some of the apps that come on iPhones and iPads, he told BuzzFeed.
When asked about those apps — commonly referred to as "bloatware" — Cook chose his words carefully, though acknowledged that "some people" may wish to remove the applications.
“This is a more complex issue than it first appears,” he said. “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate; we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”
Cook appears to make a distinction between core iOS apps — like Mail, Safari, Camera and the App Store — and ones like Compass, Stocks and Tips, which don't play a significant role in iOS as a whole and don't have much of an impact other apps. It seems that the company is considering allowing users to remove apps from this latter group. (Tips was new in iOS 8, but Stocks and Compass came in earlier iterations.)
While you'll probably be stuck with the iOS Mail app as your default email app until the end of iPhone time, you may finally be able to delete the Stocks, Tips and Compass apps. It's not clear when, or even if, this might happen, but the mere fact that Apple is considering it is news that we welcome with open arms.
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