On the Analysis of Mobile Apps. Why is most of our Research on Android?

Over the past decade, my research has been dedicated to the analysis of mobile applications, with a primary focus on the Android platform. As we delve into the intricacies of mobile app quality and trustworthiness, it becomes imperative to question the prevailing bias in our research toward the Android platform. This keynote talk aims to shed light on the reasons behind this predominant focus and provide insights into the shift of my research paradigm towards the iOS platform. Specifically, the talk will illuminate some of the unique challenges associated with analyzing iOS applications, emphasizing the differences in terms of collecting apps for analysis, the security features, and app deployment mechanisms which make iOS and Android different. I will showcase key findings of a recent prototype that we developed to identify third-party libraries in iOS apps, offering a comparative lens to understand the key differences between these platforms.