Why is this still a problem? Ultimately, because we treat mobile devices as somehow different from PCs, and we expect different things out of their users.
A PC user is expected to understand that there is a certain risk involved with downloading and installing a random program. We warn them, provide them with scanning software, etc., but at the end of the day, we leave the choice in their hands.
A mobile device user is expected to be an abject moron who willy-nilly clicks on links and installs "apps" because "apps" aren't "programs" [0]. So we curate and control what "apps" to which they have access, supposedly in their best interests, supposedly fairly, supposedly blocking out the bad stuff.
Neither assumption is, of course, either incorrect or correct. We should expect users to understand the risks of installing software, as much as we should expect them to understand the risks of inviting a stranger into their homes [1].
But at the same time, users are god damn idiots. It shouldn't be so easy to tap-tap-tap install a program from who knows whom that has been recast as an "app" and thus disassociated from the notion of "program" that they might already know shouldn't be installed without trust.
App stores need to either shit or get off the pot. If you're going to claim a curated app store, then curate the apps already. Either they are a curated means of acquiring programs, and thus can be completely trusted, or they are not, in which case they need to dump the concept that they are "official" or "certified". This post-hoc nonsense is bullshit.
[0] I do know people who don't think of web apps as "downloading" anything, and don't think of smartphone apps as the same thing as "programs". And I very much believe it to be an intentional bit of marketing on behalf of the operating system vendors to encourage people to prop up a nascent app market.
[1] Well, it is worse. You'll probably not be burned by letting every random stranger you ever meet into your house. But of those same people, one of them might be a software MBA, and concerning your computer, he sees it more as his property than yours.
A PC user is expected to understand that there is a certain risk involved with downloading and installing a random program. We warn them, provide them with scanning software, etc., but at the end of the day, we leave the choice in their hands.
A mobile device user is expected to be an abject moron who willy-nilly clicks on links and installs "apps" because "apps" aren't "programs" [0]. So we curate and control what "apps" to which they have access, supposedly in their best interests, supposedly fairly, supposedly blocking out the bad stuff.
Neither assumption is, of course, either incorrect or correct. We should expect users to understand the risks of installing software, as much as we should expect them to understand the risks of inviting a stranger into their homes [1].
But at the same time, users are god damn idiots. It shouldn't be so easy to tap-tap-tap install a program from who knows whom that has been recast as an "app" and thus disassociated from the notion of "program" that they might already know shouldn't be installed without trust.
App stores need to either shit or get off the pot. If you're going to claim a curated app store, then curate the apps already. Either they are a curated means of acquiring programs, and thus can be completely trusted, or they are not, in which case they need to dump the concept that they are "official" or "certified". This post-hoc nonsense is bullshit.
[0] I do know people who don't think of web apps as "downloading" anything, and don't think of smartphone apps as the same thing as "programs". And I very much believe it to be an intentional bit of marketing on behalf of the operating system vendors to encourage people to prop up a nascent app market.
[1] Well, it is worse. You'll probably not be burned by letting every random stranger you ever meet into your house. But of those same people, one of them might be a software MBA, and concerning your computer, he sees it more as his property than yours.