Samsung Galaxy S5 to arrive with more than $500 worth of app subscriptions

[Shawn Knight]

In the wake of being partially responsible for the world’s most retweeted tweet and debuting the first commercial for the Galaxy S5, Samsung has revealed that the upcoming flagship handset will ship with more than $500 worth of premium app subscriptions.

As part of the Galaxy Gifts bundle, users will receive a year of premium service through personal trainer app Run Keeper, a 12 month subscription to Bloomberg Businessweek +, a year subscription to personal wellness assistant Lark, a six month subscription to The Wall Street Journal, a three month Premium LinkedIn account, three months of Evernote Premium and three months of 1TB storage from Bitcasa, among others.

Collectively, the LinkedIn offer and The Wall Street Journal subscription are worth $235 alone. In total, Samsung listed 15 apps and services as part of the bundle. The offer appears to be limited to users in the US as of writing.

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 during a press conference at Mobile World Congress late last month. The handset features a 5.1-inch FHS Super AMOLED display operating at 1,920 x 1,080, a quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 2GB of system memory and a 16-megapixel rear camera.

The Galaxy S5 will arrive on April 11 globally in capacities of 16GB and 32GB. No word yet on how much the handset will cost although I wouldn’t suspect it to be far off the $200 mark (with a 2-year contract, of course).

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55871-samsung-galaxy-s5-to-arrive-with-more-than-500-worth-of-app-subscriptions.html

 

[Vrmithrax]

Yay, pre-loaded with bloatware!

Those "you get all of these premium services... for now" sales gimmicks are annoying - the last thing I need is to have easy access to something I may get dependent on, only to get zinged when I actually have to start paying for it. You want to give me a lifetime sub to the app, though, I'm ok with that!

Seriously, though... If you insist on including premium app subscription incentives, make sure you just give us the info/codes and let us decide what we want to install on our phones. Don't have it pre-loaded and annoying the crap out of us to set up accounts and put in our info if we don't want it.

 

[EEatGDL]

I thought exactly the same thing. Create unwanted dependence to those services and then if you wish to keep them you're tied to paid for them. Then again Samsung phones are full of too many apps that slow it down and now these ones, giving for granted all people want them and not just certain audience.

 

[Guest]

This is why I stick with Nexus phones.

 

[Guest]

Typical Samsung, they hope that you will be duped into believe you are getting these things for free. The reality someone has to pay for these things, the user lands up paying. There is also the possibility the service providers and app providers have also contributed to Samsung coffers to include the bloatware so that they can continue to fleece the users.

Most of the subscriptions are for services that a few want, and more than likely are already subscribed to. This just re-enforces the idea that the app developers and service providers are trying to push their own agendas to get more users. It is a good as paying people to give you good reviews. The metrics will say x number of million people have downloaded app, therefor it must be good and this causes the app to move up the app store ratings. Which makes a mockery of the ratings.

 

[Archean]

Rubbish personified, or rather continued to be since earlier S models.

Since One, I don't think S line is the best anymore, yes it had few rough edges (camera being the biggest), but it was much better than its competition. This time around, too, I think Z2 and One (whatever they call it the new one) seems be better options, if someone want an droid, but that is just my opinion.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Hopefully all this garbage can be uninstalled without resorting to rooting and I wish manufacturers would stop trying to shovel trash like this down our throats. Whats wrong with letting the consumer decide which apps they'd like installed on their phones all on their little lonesome?

 

[Archean]

Usually sammy doesn't allow that Skid, which is not so good idea, leaving only one option I.e. manually disable these apps. Or, go the other way I.e. root your cell phone, which is not something an avg user would be doing.

 

[captaincranky]

As part of the Galaxy Gifts bundle, users will receive a year of premium service through personal trainer app Run Keeper,

That sounds like, "the gift that keeps on giving". Instead of having to go through the trouble of ignoring your smart phone nagging you about fitness, just buy a "Bow flex", and shove it under your bed. You won't hear a peep out of it.

 

[Jim$ter]

One reason I like the iPhone is no bloatware. If they ever started this crap I would seriously think of switching. I like the OS to be pure and allow you to install what you want. Same as some of the new PC's come loaded with so my bloatware its no wonder they are so slow.

 

[Nobina]

One reason I like the iPhone is no bloatware. If they ever started this crap I would seriously think of switching. I like the OS to be pure and allow you to install what you want. Same as some of the new PC's come loaded with so my bloatware its no wonder they are so slow.

I don't like bloatware too but you can still uninstall or disable most of it. That's what's good about Nexus phones. They are clean and unmodified.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

They manage to find a bunch of 'premium' stuff to install, but they still won't put more storage than the standard 16GB. They keep upping the megapixels on the camera, but they won't increase the storage. Maybe they hope we won't notice....

 

[lmike6453]

They manage to find a bunch of 'premium' stuff to install, but they still won't put more storage than the standard 16GB. They keep upping the megapixels on the camera, but they won't increase the storage. Maybe they hope we won't notice....

Yeah and having megapixels being the only specification that makes a camera good is a bad standard. I seen that there's still no optical image stabilization on the new S5, and probably still takes crappy night-time pics.

S5=flop
Note 4 anyone? My guess is it's going to be a winner, coming out in November-ish

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Yeah and having megapixels being the only specification that makes a camera good is a bad standard. I seen that there's still no optical image stabilization on the new S5, and probably still takes crappy night-time pics.

S5=flop
Note 4 anyone? My guess is it's going to be a winner, coming out in November-ish

I didn't mean like they're improving the camera, I meant it as the pictures are taking up more space in the camera because they're higher MP. 16GB was standard back when the cameras were taking 8MP... then they went to 13MP and no boost in storage, then now they're going to 16mp and still no boost in storage.

Meanwhile the HTC one is taking 4MP pictures and giving you 32GB standard. I don't get it why Apple and Samsung won't include more storage. It's not like the price of flash has gone up in the last 3 years.

 

[Fbarnett]

$500.00 worth of apps? more like $1.98 worth of useable stuff