4 ms·

The Mac share of viruses is zero. If youre right & market share is the only consideration, logically that means nobody should be writing any software (eg games)

by Herring 16y ago

The Mac share of viruses is zero. If youre right & market share is the only consideration, logically that means nobody should be writing any software (eg games) for Mac either.

evilduck 16y ago
I would agree with this. Windows is a larger market to attack, but if it's lucrative to sell software to a smaller fraction of the market, it's surely lucrative to infect their computers and harvest personal info. The Apple computer marketshare is small worldwide, but inside the US, one of the richer countries in the world, Apple has a much larger representation (+20% of laptop sales, +10% desktops), and almost all >$1000 computer sales. A bank account or credit card harvested from a random Mac is probably worth a whole lot more than a random Windows computer when selecting from a global set of computers. Essentially, wealth among computer users is not evenly distributed worldwide, and Apple products are disproportionately represented in wealthier nations.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  Although that's true, consider the larger context. One, Apple's market share has only been non-trivial in recent years, meaning since the x86 switch + the iPhone launch. Two, most viruses and hacks use the Trojan Horse method, basically attempting to trick the user into giving you something that they wouldn't normally give you. Three, even though Apple and its cult like to claim that OSX is secure, OSX automatically downloads patches, and Apple releases security patches nearly as frequently as Microsoft (but ironically isn't as diligent about closing security holes as Microsoft). To make these work, the people attempting to harvest data or simply cause harm have to play the odds. So the 100 to 1 ratio between Windows and Mac machines out there has historically been reason enough to ignore the mac as a target for hackers and viruses -- so it's very likely that as Apple's market share grows, and as people start using iPhones and iPads for more and more of their computing tasks, they'll increasingly become targets for hackers also.

by Herring 16y ago

The Mac share of viruses is zero. If youre right & market share is the only consideration, logically that means nobody should be writing any software (eg games) for Mac either.

evilduck 16y ago

I would agree with this. Windows is a larger market to attack, but if it's lucrative to sell software to a smaller fraction of the market, it's surely lucrative to infect their computers and harvest personal info. The Apple computer marketshare is small worldwide, but inside the US, one of the richer countries in the world, Apple has a much larger representation (+20% of laptop sales, +10% desktops), and almost all >$1000 computer sales. A bank account or credit card harvested from a random Mac is probably worth a whole lot more than a random Windows computer when selecting from a global set of computers. Essentially, wealth among computer users is not evenly distributed worldwide, and Apple products are disproportionately represented in wealthier nations.

Tamerlin 16y ago
Although that's true, consider the larger context. One, Apple's market share has only been non-trivial in recent years, meaning since the x86 switch + the iPhone launch. Two, most viruses and hacks use the Trojan Horse method, basically attempting to trick the user into giving you something that they wouldn't normally give you. Three, even though Apple and its cult like to claim that OSX is secure, OSX automatically downloads patches, and Apple releases security patches nearly as frequently as Microsoft (but ironically isn't as diligent about closing security holes as Microsoft). To make these work, the people attempting to harvest data or simply cause harm have to play the odds. So the 100 to 1 ratio between Windows and Mac machines out there has historically been reason enough to ignore the mac as a target for hackers and viruses -- so it's very likely that as Apple's market share grows, and as people start using iPhones and iPads for more and more of their computing tasks, they'll increasingly become targets for hackers also.