Originally Posted by sam1am:
I run the same risk with every application I download for any desktop operating system. Iron fisted application stores are the not answer to malware. Like I said, they cause more problems than they solve.
That's not a valid analogy because desktop software you download software from everywhere, trusted and non-trusted sources.
A more apt analogy is downloading games from Steam's service. You assume that because the software is on steam it has been properly vetted for virii and malicious code and thus the user assumes it is safe to download. If a game is found to have malicious code in it or do things in ways that Valve does not consider safe, they will (and have) reject the application.
So no, downloading an app from the app store is no where near the same risk as downloading willy-nilly on your desktop from the thousands of untrusted websites. And most users and corporate entities don't want to deal with that risk on their mobile phone and want to be sure that they can trust Palm to distribute only software that is secure.
It's really not that hard of a concept.