I've never seen ~~~FREE RINGTONES~~~ in the Android market.
Again, this is something with an obvious software solution. Google is the best in the world at providing good search results...so, why not provide the best search results in the market? (I don't think they currently do a good job, though. I'll be the first to admit that the Apple App Store is still a somewhat better experience than the App Market, despite App Market getting quite a bit better during its life...but it's not because App Store is curated. It's because Google hasn't put the resources into making App Market work really well.)
Generally, I think if you've got people involved in processes that could be handled by software, it's a failure. It's costing consumers more money, costing developers more time, and insuring that it is a fallible process and subject to the whims of sometimes capricious reviewers. Since this article is about security (and not "~~~FREE RINGTONES~~~"), that's clearly something that ought to be handled in software. The fact that Apple doesn't handle it in the OS, and instead relies on human reviewers, is Apple's failure. The fact that Google doesn't handle it in the OS, and relies on vendor trust and user intelligence and a better than average (but still weaker than ideal) security model, is Google's failure.
On the subject of security, you've suggested that Apple have the problem solved by having a curated market. I don't believe that's at all accurate.
Again, this is something with an obvious software solution. Google is the best in the world at providing good search results...so, why not provide the best search results in the market? (I don't think they currently do a good job, though. I'll be the first to admit that the Apple App Store is still a somewhat better experience than the App Market, despite App Market getting quite a bit better during its life...but it's not because App Store is curated. It's because Google hasn't put the resources into making App Market work really well.)
Generally, I think if you've got people involved in processes that could be handled by software, it's a failure. It's costing consumers more money, costing developers more time, and insuring that it is a fallible process and subject to the whims of sometimes capricious reviewers. Since this article is about security (and not "~~~FREE RINGTONES~~~"), that's clearly something that ought to be handled in software. The fact that Apple doesn't handle it in the OS, and instead relies on human reviewers, is Apple's failure. The fact that Google doesn't handle it in the OS, and relies on vendor trust and user intelligence and a better than average (but still weaker than ideal) security model, is Google's failure.
On the subject of security, you've suggested that Apple have the problem solved by having a curated market. I don't believe that's at all accurate.