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The Boston Globe

Android Phones are Tempting Targets for Hackers

"People never thought about virus infection on smartphones, and they’re going to regret it,’’ said Harry Wang, director of mobile research at Parks Associates, a technology research firm in Dallas. “They are pretty much a computer in your pocket,’’ and therefore just as tempting to data thieves as a desktop PC.

Google’s Android Market offers 200,000 software apps, while Apple’s App Store has about 425,000 apps. That gap was far bigger when Google introduced the first Android phone, in 2008. Wang said that Google embraced an open software model so developers would help the company to catch up, by quickly building a lot of Android-compatible apps. “It reached a critical mass that made the Android market very attractive to consumers,’’ he said.
 

From the article, "Android phones are tempting targets for hackers" by Hiawatha Bray
 

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