Google vs Apple App Stores: Moderation
So I read the news with initial horror then acceptance yesterday when it was reported that Google had remote wiped some apps from Android handsets. The “nuclear option” in hyperbolic web frenzy. In some ways I agree with Gizmodo that if Apple were the one exercising this kill switch, the world would be in arms – but with Google it was a fizzle. However, as I read through the whole announcement and saw that they were apps that intentionally misrepresented themselves and performed actions for research’s sake that could potentially have been bad a new understanding dawned on me.
It would be much less likely for Apple to have been in that situation. Given their screening process, with all i’s flaws, a program that didn’t do what it said it would most likely wouldn’t get through to the App Store. For all the vitriol thrown at this opaque process it at least gets part of the equation right – it should be and is screening for exactly this sort of thing. The problem with Apple is that it goes beyond objective technical metrics for validating apps, it moved into subjective ones – judging the content of submitted apps. Maybe even that wouldn’t cause as much trouble for the company, except that the judging is based on rules that no one understands – rules that seem arbitrary and potentially costly for app developers who live and die by the capriciousness of Apple’s whims.
Android on the other hand, thanks to their free and open market let’s everything through (as far as I can tell, there’s no approval step). So, what you get is a lot of spam, malicious apps and now this latest one benign, but not welcome.
To me that’s the spectrum, overly closed and overly open. Both have their pros and their cons – my guess is that mainstream consumers will prefer overly closed – they like to believe that what they get will work, work as advertised and not have to worry about downloading something that’s going to do something bad. Of course, with open you get a lot more variety of apps which is also appealing. However, if either system could get to the middle – it’d be for the best – a screening process that screened for technical issues only. The app is doing what is says it should do and nothing more.
I’m just saying. Google’s remote remove of the applications were warranted and not in and of themselves cause for alarm. It is, however, symptomatic of a problem that their open market faces and will have to deal with before long. As Droid takes off it is going to be an increasingly attractive platform for malware developers to target – a sequence of these discoveries will severely dampen enthusiasm for the Android App Market and that is something Google can ill afford in the mobile wars. (NB I’m not saying iOS is immune to malware – just that their approval system is much more likely to catch things before they’re released.) Am I wrong about the App Market screening process? Is this really a non-issue?
