Bloatware and Jailbreaking: Strategic Impacts of Consumer-Initiated Modification of Technology Products

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cavusoglu, Hasan; Cavusoglu, Huseyin; Geng, Xianjun
• 署名单位: University of British Columbia; University of Texas System; University of Texas Dallas; Tulane University
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2019.0883
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 240-257
• 关键词: information; service; burden; patch

摘要

Many consumer electronics devices are sold bundled with unwanted applications-called bloatware-thatprovide an additional revenue stream to device manufacturers but deteriorate the value of purchased devices for consumers. Consumers, in response, find technical means to modify purchased devices-called jailbreaking-to remove those applications, thereby reducing the anticipated bloatware revenue for manufacturers. From the perspective of a monopolistic firm that manufactures a consumer electronic device and can preinstall a third-party app for a fee, we investigate whether bloatware inclusion is a viable strategy and how the firm should price its product with bloatware given that consumers can remove bloatware from the product after purchase. We show that it is not always optimal for the firm to sell a bloatware-included product. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that even if the firm can make it harder for consumers to jailbreak, the firm is not always better off by doing so. Consumers do not necessarily benefit from the reduced cost of jailbreaking either. Because the firm passes part of the bloatware revenue to consumers in the form of a lower price, whenever bloatware inclusion benefits the firm, consumers also benefit. Finally, we confirm that our results are robust to alternative modeling assumptions.