You're confusing two different things: - Apple giving a shit about app curation versus Google Play being a trash heap - Android having the ability to install

You're confusing two different things: - Apple giving a shit about app curation versus Google Play being a trash heap - Android having the ability to install third-party-signed apps Nothing about having the ability to install software outside of Google Play necessitates Google Play itself being a tire fire. Same with Apple: if they tomorrow decided to open up iOS to non-App-Store apps, it wouldn't impact the quality of curation on the iOS App Store. For the record, I daily drive both an Android phone and an iPad, and don't really worry about malware on either of them. My main gripe is not having any good virtualization options to really stretch the iPad's legs on more developer-centric workflows. That's a particular category of app where App Review has ranged from somewhat hostile to extremely hostile. The end result is that not a lot of people actually bother working on such tools because the chances of actually getting into the App Store and being useful to a wide swath of people is marginal.