i think everyone knows that perfect security is not possible, the operative word being ‘perfect’. i think what we want is for apple to ‘actually try’ to provide security, in some way that results in security order of magnitudes better than we enjoy today, which would still be miles and miles away from ‘perfect’, vulnerable to nation state actors etc etc etc
Put a different way, is there any device with a high monthly active user count that has a higher cost to purchase a black market exploit than the iPhone?
Apple can always do better. It should also scare the living hell out of us that they’re currently the best in the world.
My point is that if Apple can’t secure your phones, who can? It’s enough to make one think about security through obscurity.
This is unfair, because there is a duopoly and the only alternative on mass market is Android. Of course in such circumstances the exploits will be expensive, even if security is awful.
Ignoring this, Purism takes security more seriously, because they give the user full control over the OS with possibility to replace/reinstall or harden it. In contrast to that, rarely updated iMessage is impossible to uninstall on iOs.
I'm going to answer about operating system rather than device.
The selling price of an Android full chain with persistence zero click is up to $2.5 million. The selling price of an iOS full chain with persistence zero click is up to $2 million.
https://zerodium.com/program.html
Both are better than any desktop operating system.
You're right that the price doesn't fully correlate with security. It will reflect supply (security and interest of researchers) and demand (how much there is to be gained by breaking into each platform).
Android is more widely used, but I gather more money is spent in the app store than the play store. I don't know the market share of "interesting" users.
My analysis would be that the number shows they're not that far apart. I'd be skeptical of anyone (IE apple's press release) saying that either platform is more secure. Security is too nuanced to be expressed as a total order.
That's a pretty tall order, and would likely result in a device that is much more expensive and has a user experience that users would not like. Assuming "orders of magnitude better" is even possible, of which I am skeptical.