If you’ve ever used the iPhone for a prolonged period of time and have tried to free up storage on the device, the first thing you probably looked to delete was the Stocks app on your home screen that you never use. Much to your horror, you then found out that the Stocks app and other default Apple apps cannot be deleted from the device. But why?
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Buzzfeed’s John Paczkowski asked Apple CEO Tim Cook this question in a wide-ranging interview and Cook’s answer frankly didn’t make a lot of sense.
“This is a more complex issue than it first appears,” Cook told Paczkowski . “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate, we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”
It’s hard to figure out exactly how a Stocks app could possibly cause issues elsewhere on the phone. After all, it’s a very basic app that has been on the device ever since it launched in 2007. What functions could it possibly have that are critical to the iPhone?
At any rate, it’s good to see Cook understands user annoyance over this and is looking to fix it. Now if only Paczkowski had thought to ask about why Apple is still making 16GB iPhones other than as a naked cash grab…
