The quantity of pre-installed software in vseebox elite at the factory is 32 (third-party software and system tools), of which the proportion of third-party software that can be removed by users is 59% (19), and system-level software is 41% (13). Compared to other market competitors that are of the same nature, such as Amazon Fire TV Cube (45 pre-installed apps and 40% uninstallable) and Google Chromecast Ultra (28 pre-installed apps and 32% uninstallable), the vseebox elite uninstallable percentage is 38% higher than market average (Data source: 2024 Streaming Device Benchmark Report). The pre-installed programs are occupying a total 4.7GB of memory space (3.7% of the entire 128GB capacity), and 3.1GB (66% of the pre-installed program storage limit) can be released once consumers uninstall all the third-party programs.
The pre-installed app functions breakdown shows streaming apps (Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify) account for 56% (18), utility apps (file management and screen projection tools) account for 25% (8), and education and game apps account for 19% (6). According to data from third-party research firm AppOptix, the median vseebox elite usage rate of pre-installed apps is 63%. Among them, the top three high-frequency usage applications are YouTube (42 minutes of average daily usage), Prime Video (38 minutes), and local media players (25 minutes). Idle time for the average unused pre-installed application is 8.7 months. The platform comes with a “one-click freeze” capability to conserve power during background usage (converting roughly 5% of CPU load).
Cost savings due to the pre-installation method are staggering. The firm reduces the hardware cost of the device by 12%-15% through the portion of pre-installed cooperative applications (e.g., the BOM cost of the 128 GB model is reduced from $89 to $78). Users have the option to choose either the “ad-free version” (with a price difference of $20) or the “standard version” (with ads for pre-installed applications) when purchasing. After deactivating all third-party advertisement modules, the startup time of the former is reduced by 22% (6.3 seconds from 8 seconds). Industry examples in 2023 show that negative review percentage of Roku Ultra was increased by 18% due to excessive pre-installed apps, while negative review percentage of vseebox elite was kept at 3.2% through balancing pre-installed app number and uninstallability (2024 data from Trustpilot).
The pre-installed app update and compatibility operate exceptionally well. The pre-installed app average update times of vseebox elite are 1.2 times per month (industry average: 0.7 times), and the API compatibility test pass rate using the Android 12 system reaches 99.3% (industry standard: 95%). For example, the HBO Max app 4K HDR playback crash rate on the device is 0.3% (industry average is 1.8%). The company also offers the “application replacement right”, i.e., users have a right to remove any pre-installed app and install a replacement (e.g., replacing the local player with VLC). This feature increases the personalization score of the device by 27% (J.D. Power 2024 User Experience Survey).
Historical records prove the reasonableness of the strategy: In 2022, Xiaomi TV Stick was sued for compulsorily pre-installing 35 non-uninstallable apps and eventually paid users $15 per device. The compliant design of vseebox elite (as per FCC and GDPR rules) enables its return rate in the European and American markets to be as low as 1.5%. User testing finds that if only the core system applications (13) are retained, the performance speed of the device is improved by 18% and its storage life based on NAND write cycles is lengthened by 23%.