Four Android Phones Shipped For Every iPhone Sold, But Malware Also On The Increase

[accadacca]

If you’ve bought an iPhone during the past few weeks, you’re part of an ever increasing exclusive club, as Android handsets outsell Apple‘s flagship smartphone.

According to research by IDC, there were four Android handsets sold for every iPhone for the second quarter of 2012, up from a ratio of 2.5:1 for the same period last year.

Spearheading this Android revolution is Samsung, who are currently dominating the market, having shipped almost 105 million Android smartphones in the April-June quarter. Samsung is currently the #1 smartphone maker, with Apple at the #2 spot.

Google‘s Android mobile platform currently enjoys a 68 percent worldwide market share, up from 47 percent for the same period in 2011.

Sales of the iPhone fell during the quarter to 17 percent, from 19 percent for the same period in 2011. However, it is expected that the launch of the new iPhone, expected later this year, will give the Cupertino consumer electronics giant a boost.

It’s not all good news for Android users though.

According to Finnish security firm F-Secure, more than 5,000 samples of malicious Android software were received by the company during the second quarter of 2012, which represents a massive 64 percent increase of compared to the first quarter of 2012.

“Every quarter, Android malware continues to grow in number, and Q2 2012 is no exception. We received a total of 5033 malicious Android application package files, or APKs, most of which are coming from third-party Android markets,” said the report titled “F-Secure Mobile Threat Report“.

“This amount is a 64 percent increase compared to the number in the previous quarter. Out of this amount, we identified 19 new families and 21 new variants of existing families,” the report added.

However, most of this malware is confined to third-party download sites. If you want to avoid Android malware, the best way to do so is to only limit downloads to the official Google Play site.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianki...-the-increase/

[double moo]

5000 samples of malicious Andrid software in the 2nd quarter!!! Wow! Apple is sure paying off a lot of hackers... Still cheaper than suing them I guess.