This is dangerously misleading nonsense. Yes, XCodeGhost was bad for iOS in China, but Android malware in China is of a different class entirely: it often comes pre-installed in the firmware [1]. Furthermore Play Store isn't available in China, and the Android app stores available in China are overflowing with malware.
500 million is the number of devices which potentially had access to an app store containing apps that had malware. It's not the number actually infected. I mean, come on.
> 500 million is the number of devices which potentially had access to an app store containing apps that had malware. It's not the number actually infected. I mean, come on.
From the article: "XcodeGhost potentially affects more than 500 million iOS users, primarily because messaging app WeChat is very popular in China and the Asia-Pacific region." After that article was published, Angry Birds 2 was also discovered to be infected.
Did you notice how I compared to Google and Amazon app stores? Those are the devices that HN readers would buy (those Chinese app store phones are not available for sale in the US), and they have vastly more users than the iTunes App Store yet in total infected devices can't come anywhere close to the toxic hellstew that is the App Store.
500 million is the number of devices which potentially had access to an app store containing apps that had malware. It's not the number actually infected. I mean, come on.
[1] https://www.cyberscoop.com/android-malware-china-huawei-zte-...