Follow @MobileGalen
McAfee today announced that the iOS edition of its WaveSecure mobile security software lets you remotely wipe or lock your iPhone or iPad from a Web portal, as well as back up contacts, photos, and videos to its servers for safekeeping in case a device is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Which is all well and good, except Apple has offered the remote wipe and lock features for more than a year at no charge to all iOS users via its free Find My iPhone/iPad service, and its iTunes software has backed up all that data (and more) since the very first iPhone shipped in 2007. Theforthcoming iCloud will also do that backup online -- at no charge -- without iTunes.
[ Apple has much to learn about securing Mac OS X -- and Microsoft could teach it how. Luckily, iOS security is much, much better. | Compare the security and management capabilities of iOS, Android, WebOS, Windows Phone 7, and more in InfoWorld's Mobile Management Deep Dive PDF report. ]
So what is the point of McAfee's $20 offering to do the same thing Apple provides at no cost?
One of McAfee's answers was amusing: It said iOS users could retrieve the backed-up information from Android or other devices that support WaveSecure. Yeah, sure -- iOS users will switch to Android or BlackBerry if their iPhone or iPad is lost, stolen, or damaged. Never mind that data is available through iTunes and soon iCloud.
Another answer was scary: "It enables telcos and ISPs to keep the user loyal to the network instead of the device," said Lianne Caetano, McAfee's marketing director for consumer mobile products. In other words, your WaveSecure backup is tied to your carrier, so should you change carriers, you lose that backup. That's not the case at all with iTunes and iCloud.
Carriers and their technology partners need to get a clue: Smartphones are not interchangeable devices as past cellphones were. People buy iPhones, BlackBerrys, or Androids because they want an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android -- not because it comes from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon Wireless. The carrier is a secondary concern, based on local coverage quality and your family or business plan. McAfee's carrier-centric motivation should be a red flag that its WaveSecure product isn't really aimed to help you, the user.
Like its rival Symantec, McAfee has been eager to convince mobile users that they need antimalware software on their smartphones and tablets, even though these devices -- with thenotable exception of Android -- can live without it. That may change in the future, but for now,mobile devices are safer than PCs.
No comments:
Post a Comment