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The average Android user is far worse off security-wise than the average iOS user, and it isn't even close.

How so? As of late, Android FCZC exploits pay out more than iOS ones do at the moment[1]. And anecdotally from what I hear from friends involved in security, Android is very well hardened at this point and is equal to iOS despite having a much wider surface area for attacks.

[1] https://opzero.ru/en/prices/

Average Android users are not targeted by exploits.

Sounds like they're better off then, since they're not getting targeted?

No, the threat to most users is losing their device, cloud backups, sensor permissions, and the like. The price of a remote zero click has nothing to do with whether your phone offers end to end encrypted cloud backups (which Android does not) or secure bioauth (remember when Android vendors shipped various insecure versions of face unlock before giving up on replicating Face ID?).

Would you say that's primarily due to JIT, or maybe due to the budget for security patches for most Android devices being a tiny fraction of what Apple has?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com