Apple did it again, this time in the mobile phone market. Back in 1984 when Steve Jobs launched the first personal computer, it was an impressive, closed and expensive piece of technology. A couple of years later, Microsoft launched Windows on top of its already popular MS-DOS and this GUI being flexible and less expensive was very quickly adopted by all leaving Apple behind with only the small high-end market.
This time, back in 2007 Apple revolutionized the mobile phone industry with the iPhone, again a closed system with a restrictive App Store but then in 2009, Google launched its Google Phone based on Android - a mobile OS similar to iPhone OS except that it is open source; therefore anyone can see the source codes, customize it and develop apps for it. Since then the popularity of Android has not stopped growing and at times even surpassing iPhone sales in 2010.
With popularity comes vulnerability! As was the case for Windows desktop, when an OS has 95% of market share, it becomes the designated target of viruses and all other spywares and malwares. So will Android when it will dominate the mobile phone market, and Android being open will make it more vulnerable to such threats. Some have already forecast the year 2011 as the year of smartphone malware.
