The problems with Android are typically caused by apps that actually make it to the official Play Store. The cause of that is poor reviewing by Google, nothing to do with OS issues.
Dozens of malicious apps infected with the malware are being distributed via the Play Store and alternate app stores such as APKpure and APKCombo, often targeting users to spy on their habits and steal data.
According to security firm Kaspersky, this malware campaign has been live for over 4 years, and is likely the work of the OceanLotus advanced persistent threat (APT) group, thought to be based out of Vietnam.
> Fortnite became available for Android on Aug. 9, starting with Samsung Galaxy devices, and then became available for all of Android on Aug. 12. Google brought the vulnerability to Epic Games' attention on Aug. 15. Epic Games immediately acknowledged its mistake and fixed the bug with version 2.1.0 of the launcher on Aug. 16.
Iirc the issue was that they first downloaded a file and then ran it. Thus there was a short window of time where someone can tamper with the file before it's running. Far from being a security nightmare it was a subtle flaw, and fixed quickly.
Good point. That might probably be the reason why Apple will be able to get away with it in the end. They’re not a monopoly and users do have a choice.
What do you think makes open platforms an issue for mobile phones and not an issue for other devices?
I don't believe this issues you're facing come from android being open, but from google's poor design decisions like granting network access to apps by default.
Apple can do open platforms right if it wanted. It doesn't have to do them poorly like google.
Yes, however in cases like that an app store that only distributes officially signed packages and does some scanning as well as allows community to report issues should handle issues for packages that aren't open source. Nothing stopping something like that from existing if app creators wanted to start using it.
F-droid did wade into the free speech debate in relatively recent history by banning an app. I neither condone nor condemn this action but some people (probably very few given that f-droid itself is rather fringe) were probably put off by it.
I’m not saying the apple model is how I want things (far from it), but it certainly has been effective at controlling malware on the platform.