• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, January 12, 2010

The discovery of a phishing application posing as the official banking app of First Tech Credit Union in the Android Market has naturally raised questions about the approval process for Google's app storefront. Until now, the relative ease of getting an app into the Android Market has generally been hailed as a welcome alternative to the overly restrictive and arbitrary oversight Apple exercises over its App Store.

One could certainly look at this as a trade-off--get anything you want in the Android Market but be more vigilant about what you're downloading because filtering is more lax. Buyer beware. "Or do you need to be held in the warm, protective breast of a multination corporation, guarded by its app approval minions, who go over every app with a fine-tooth comb?" is how Gizmodo put it. In other words, you're a wuss if prefer the App Store.

Google's policy for Android app developers really isn't all that different from Apple's respective guidelines. Apps shouldn't violate copyright, promote hate or violence, contain nudity and sexually explicit material, create "a spammy user experience, or harm user devices or personal data. So it really comes down to enforcement. If Google were to more aggressively police the Android Market, the same cries of censorship might be leveled against it as well as Apple.

Perhaps a broader concern for Google highlighted by phishing app is the overall quality of Android apps. Much of the focus on the Android Market to date has been on the storefront simply having a critical mass of apps to compete with the App Store. But TechCrunch points out that Apple is ahead not just in quantity but quality.

Aside from Google apps on the Nexus One, "iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps," Siegler in a wrote MG post today comparing Google's new Nexus One phone with the iPhone. It concluded: "Android's platform will continue to mature no doubt, but so will the iPhone's. It has to be worrisome for Google that the divide is still this wide."

Maybe a little tighter vetting would help Google catch up to Apple in building its app business -- and protect consumers as well.