Set up a new phone and you'll find applications you didn't choose. Some can be uninstalled, some can only be disabled, and some cannot be removed at all.
This isn't sloppiness. Pre-installation is a commercial arrangement, and understanding the economics explains the pattern of which devices carry the most.
The payment flows
Several distinct arrangements, and a given phone may involve all of them.
Manufacturer deals. Application developers pay device manufacturers to have their software pre-installed. The payment may be per device shipped, per activation, or a share of subsequent revenue.
Carrier deals. Where phones are sold through mobile operators, the operator frequently adds its own applications and may have separate arrangements with third parties.
Search and default placement. Substantial payments are made for default search engine placement and similar defaults, and these arrangements have attracted regulatory attention in multiple jurisdictions.
Manufacturer's own services. Duplicate applications for messaging, browsing, app distribution and payments, intended to build an ecosystem and generate ongoing revenue.
Why cheaper phones have more
The clearest pattern, and it follows directly from the economics.
Margins on budget devices are extremely thin. Pre-installation revenue, at a few units of currency per device, can represent a meaningful share of the profit on a low-cost phone.
On a premium device with substantial margin, that revenue is negligible and the user experience cost of a cluttered device is significant.
So the incentive scales inversely with price. Budget phones carry the most, premium flagships the least, and the difference is a rational response rather than a quality difference.
This has a slightly uncomfortable implication: users with the least money to spend receive devices with the most commercially motivated software, including advertising displayed within system applications on some devices.
The system application problem
The technical reason some applications cannot be removed.
Applications installed in the system partition have elevated privileges and cannot be uninstalled through normal means. This is appropriate for genuine system components — the dialler, the settings application — and it also applies to commercial pre-installations placed there.
Users can generally disable such applications, which stops them running and hides them without recovering storage.
Removal is possible through developer tools using a command-line interface, which works without requiring modification of the device and is well beyond what most users will attempt.
The genuine concerns
Beyond irritation, there are substantive issues.
Security. Pre-installed applications with system privileges are part of the device's attack surface, and their security depends on the developer. Research examining pre-installed software has repeatedly found vulnerabilities and questionable data practices in third-party applications shipped on devices.
Update lifecycle. Pre-installed applications may not be updated through the standard app store, meaning security fixes depend on the manufacturer's update cycle, which for budget devices can be slow or nonexistent.
Data collection. Some pre-installed software collects data with elevated permissions, and the disclosure is frequently buried in terms users never see. This has been the subject of regulatory action in several markets.
Resources. Storage and background processing on devices where both are constrained. On a phone with limited storage, several unremovable applications represent a meaningful proportion.
What regulators have done
Competition authorities in several jurisdictions have examined default placement and bundling arrangements.
Outcomes have included requirements to offer choice screens for default services, restrictions on tying certain applications together, and in some cases substantial fines.
The general direction has been towards requiring that defaults be chosen rather than imposed, though implementation varies and the effects on actual user behaviour have been debated — many users accept whatever the first option is regardless of how it's presented.
What you can do
Practical steps in rough order of effort.
Uninstall what can be uninstalled during setup, before it accumulates data and notifications.
Disable what can't be uninstalled. This stops execution and removes it from the launcher.
Review permissions on anything remaining, particularly location, contacts and microphone access for applications with no obvious need.
Turn off notifications for anything you didn't choose to install, which addresses most of the day-to-day irritation.
And for the next purchase: research the software situation alongside the hardware. Reviews frequently cover this and it's a genuine differentiator between devices with otherwise similar specifications. Devices running closer to stock software, or from manufacturers with a reputation for restraint, are meaningfully better in daily use in a way the specification sheet doesn't capture.
The refurbished and grey market angle
A hazard worth flagging for anyone buying outside official channels. Devices sold through unofficial import routes or as refurbished units sometimes carry software added after manufacture, by parties in the distribution chain rather than by the maker.
Research examining devices from informal supply chains has found pre-installed software with elevated permissions that was not present on the manufacturer's own builds, in some cases with behaviour that would not pass any app store review.
This is difficult to detect for an ordinary user. The practical protections are buying through official channels, checking that the device reports the expected build from the manufacturer, and performing a factory reset from official firmware where you have any doubt.
The price saving from an unofficial channel is frequently modest, and the risk profile is considerably worse than the discount suggests.