Before I get onto my soapbox let me prefice all of this by saying that I find Verizon's LTE network as well as their 3G network to be the best in the country. I've had issues with various things (who hasn't) when it comes to my service or phone but Verizon has always been very kind and helpful.
Now for my MASSIVE complaint. First I want to address the insane amount of bloatware on my Thunderbolt. I do not want, nor will I every use City ID, Blockbuster, Lets Golf 2, TuneWiki, V Cast anything, VZ Navigator, or any other pre-loaded piece of software that I missed. These unused apps are not only taking up space on my device, but constantly run in the background wasting precious resources and battery life. I use a task killer to manage this, but it doesn't matter. I purchased the phone on day ,1 and the majority of these apps I've never once chosen to open, yet they still want to run and Verizon has given me no option to remove them [Edited to comply with Terms of Service]
Second, when do Thunderbolt owners get Gingerbread and a front facing camera that works? I know that HTC is responsible for the software updates, but Verizon is the one that gives the go ahead and pushes this. Are we to believe that we have no Android 2.3 and working front camera because of HTC? They're pushing new updates to their other devices, but not the Thunderbolt. There are phones on Verizon's network that were released long after the Thunderbolt that have had Gingerbread pushed to it already.
Finally, the latest update that Verizon has pushed out was supposed to fix random reboots and other issues. That's great that big red finally did this, but to put yet another app that I don't want, need, or can't uninstall was put into the update. I DO NOT WANT MORE BLOATWARE!!!! Why is it that Verizon wants to ruin a perfectly good phone? Because of all this unecessary software I literally have had my battery drain dead (no power at all) in a single hour after removing it from the charger. I can't begin to explain how inconvenient and frustrating this can be.
I'd like the ability to control MY phone how I see fit. Use it in a manner that I choose and not be inundated with crap that does nothing but kill my battery. More than likely any person that has the power to pass this rant on to those in positions of decision making will not see this, ignore it, or dismiss it altogether. I just hope that I'm not alone in my way of thinking and maybe future Android phone releases won't be so loaded with crap software that us customers can eventually use our devices as intended.
Sincerely,
Thinking of purchasing 3rd party unlocked device next time around
P.S. - I used to do 1 year contracts because I like phone upgrades every year. Now that the option has been removed (it's greed, no one smart enough would ever think it's "best interest of the customer") I may become ex-Verizon customer.
