They were doing this with their TVs. For me it was one of the most weird feelings I got, having no control over it and having a freaking ad in the menu of the TV in my living room (and I did follow all the possible steps to disable any marketing and other messages). Imagine having kids and seeing an ad for a chocolate with 50% sugar on your TV or other products that you want away from your kids, and no way of knowing what else they would push there.
What’s pathetic is the resignation at the end: “we know ads aren’t going away...”, and then the suggestion of making them less obnoxious, “maybe, please, Samsung, could you...?”. Yeesh, we’re already negotiating? Do we collectively like Samsung phones so much that we’ll do anything but simply not buy an ad-ridden $1400 phone?
I have a Samsung Smart TV and they keep adding Facebook Video and CBS All Access apps to the "Recently Used" apps menu. I've never even launched these apps. Ever. And as an "added benefit" to customers, these apps cannot be deleted nor can you prevent them from being pushed in your face. Totally infuriating. As such my future TVs will not be Samsung.
I recently purchased a Xiaomi phone and even though it's a flagship of sorts, it still has ads in the stock browser and music apps, asking other places.
I curse the US for removing Huawei as a competitor. My last Huawei phone had no such ads.
That's some twisted logic right there. "You get what you deserve when you spend what a Mercedes costs on something that isn't a Mercedes.", I said to the BMW owner.
