iOS vs. Android: Apple Marketing Chief Philip Schiller Notes Android Security Fault on Twitter

An Apple executive might have indirectly called out rival Android.

Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller has been tweeting since 2008, but based on consistency, he's not a daily user. However, after a few months hiatus, Schiller took the time to tweet a message.

For the first time since Christmas, the Apple senior VP tweeted "Be safe out there" followed by a link to the "Mobile Threat Report" based on the fourth quarter of 2012.

Be safe out there: f-secure.com/static/doc/lab...

— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) March 7, 2013

"This report discusses the mobile threat landscape as seen in the fourth quarter of 2012, and includes statistics and details of the mobile threats that F-secure response labs have seen and analyzed during that period. The data presented in this report was last updated on 31 December 2012," reads the report abstract.

What is notable about the report is the heavy focus on Google's Android operating system, rival to Apple's iOS.

"Android malware has been strengthening its position in the mobile threat scene," the report's executive summary noted. "Every quarter, malware authors bring forth new threat families and variants to lure more victims and to update on the existing ones. In the fourth quarter alone, 96 new families and variants of Android threats were discovered, which almost doubles the number recorded in the previous quarter."

Schiller joined Apple in April 1997 and has been involved in launch events of devices such as the iPads, iPhone 5, and iPod Touch devices.

The tweet comes as NetMarketShare reported iOS as having the top market share among mobile operating systems for February 2013 with 54.91 percent. The percentage for the iOS tops the Android, which placed second, with 25.65 percent.

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