How safe is android compared to other mobile platforms? Recently I get the impression malware is only present on Android (compared to other mobile platforms) as every IT news magazine reports only on Android malware. (I guess it is also involved with the fact that mobil devices become more and more powerful and also mobile malware evolves => kind of populism) However, when I do web search indeed I get the impression that Android is the excellent platform for malware:


http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/android-malware-explodes-ios-remains-safe/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/245380/ios_safer_from_malware_than_android_security_firm_says.html


What do you think? Are those ratings biased?, Why? On the other hand Android is the most common mobile operating system making it an attractive place for malware. Additionally manufactors do not update their devices with newer versions (as they want to sell newer phones with newer android versions (fragmentation)). And last but not least the android market is some how not as restrictive as the iOS store, right?

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And yes of course: classifying what actually is malware is not so clear, so it depends how and who is calculating "malware".
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This is too big for a comment, so here goes:


Both articles cite one and the same McAfee report. 
McAfee is a security products vendor, hardly an impartial observer to the malware scene.
McAfee does not have products which for iOS devices, but they most certainly do for Android devices. And paid, too. Turns out they might have for both platforms. I can't be bothered to install iTunes to verify.
Android is the fastest-growing mobile platform, and with an absolutely crazy 73%+ growth rate, and now has 48% market share, compared to just 10% in the beginning of 2010.


No big surprise here -- this is just a marketing ploy by a security vendor to sell more products. The same trick they pulled off with other AV vendors that they did with PCs in the mid-2000s.

As an aside, security is not all that much platform-dependent as it is people-dependent. Most of the largest security breaches are caused by social engineering attacks rather than technical limitations. I have yet to see with my eyes an Android malware application, it has always been beyond me how people manage to get infected. See also this related question on whether you need AV on your Android (short answer -- no).

Your phone should be secure as long as you use common sense while installing and using applications. Don't trust anything that's on the Market Play Store, the same way as you wouldn't trust a random PC program, or a Facebook "app" for that matter.

iOS and Anrdoid security concerns pop here and there in the news occasionally, but from observing both markets for some time I'm fairly convinced that both platforms offer reasonable (technical) protection to their users, and offending applications are removed with short notice. Google has even removed malware applications from devices without user discretion at least once.