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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

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ceejayoz

In fairness, it seems this is true for Apple (broken review process) and Google (malware infestation).

Oddly, I haven't heard one horror story about the Windows Phone app store.

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The Windows store is flooded with fake and scam apps.

http://www.howtogeek.com/194993/the-windows-store-is-a-cessp...

http://forums.windowscentral.com/general-windows-phone-discu...

Google Play does not have a "malware infestation". I have never once downloaded any malware, lookout has never detected any malware on my phone and I've never known anyone who has downloaded malware from Google Play. Anecdotal for sure, but given you said "infestation" you'd think I'd be crazy to download anything at all from Google Play. Absolute nonsense.

Actually, based in the stats I've seen in the past (I can go hunting for them if needed), you would be crazy to download "anything at all" from the Play store, in the sense that the probability of a randomly-selected app harboring malware or privacy-invading practices is much higher than in the Apple App Store. But this is also like saying that you'd be insane to follow a random URL from your inbox; any random link is probably a phishing site or spam Viagra store, but you are unlikely to select one of those URLs by intent. Likewise, the vast majority of dangerous Android apps aren't ever going to appear on your radar, but that doesn't mean they aren't out there, just that they're poorly-targeted. (The Windows store, by contrast, was at one point full of questionable apps impersonating major brands, which is a much more obvious threat model.)

> Google Play does not have a "malware infestation". I have never once downloaded any malware, lookout has never detected any malware on my phone and I've never known anyone who has downloaded malware from Google Play.

Seriously, what is the point of saying that? There are lots of articles about the problem, but you stick to your own experiences then!

It doesn't have a "malware infestation" problem, but rather a "arbitrary suspend/ban" problem.

Indeed. This is so overblown it is pathetic.

Edit: I wonder what smut the down voters have been downloading that may have given them the malwares. Reputable apps are fine. And there's no infestation. Just stahp.

Malware-containing apps have millions of downloads, and there are/were thousands of them. One might argue if that is an "infestation", given the much larger number of apps in the store, but it also isn't something that has only happened once or twice.

And when it comes to e.g. games there isn't much of reputation information outside a very small set of hits. No need to download "smut".

What is broken about Apple's review process? Sure it's stringent, but is that not a good thing?

A lot. It's the largest pain point shipping on iOS. More specific details and some suggestions:

http://christian.legnitto.com/blog/2016/01/02/ways-i-would-f...

You can google and read about lots of frustrated developers trying to get their app into the App Store. Nebulous responses from Apple, no response from Apple, rediculous response from Apple. It's all out there.

Well lets see... You have to pay $99 a year, you need an apple computer to add an app to their store, it takes weeks or months to add an app, and I'm sure there's more.

None of those things are problems with the review process.

"takes weeks or months to add an app"

I'd say that's a problem with the review process.

As an iOS user personally, I greatly value the diligence, so I'm not sure I'd call it a problem.

I was going to say the same, as we have been reading about the problems in Mac App Store lately on HN.

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