[abalone]

I think it's more like Apple is patient and waits to get things right. Bug bounty programs are relatively new (past few years). The article notes that Apple faced a more complicated landscape than your typical company, one where state actors are bidders. So they needed to craft a more targeted program.

[hyperpape]

This seems like a pretty generic reason that doesn't explain that much. Are state actors not bidders on gmail, android, facebook, firefox, chrome?

[abalone]

What's the going rate for an Android vuln? The FBI paid ~$1M for an iOS one. Android has a lot more malware, unpatched old installs, etc., and there are myriad ways to attack email and web accounts, so my guess is the marketplace for iOS is on a whole different level.