Antivirus software has taken a beating lately in the news, mostly since it has struggled to identify and contain many of the bigger malware attacks in recent months.

Antivirus Not Necessary on Smartphones?

In fact, it may not be essential. Many people do a good deal of their computing via smartphone now-a-days. People check their email, social media, and surf the web all on their smartphones. On a regular PC they must count on antivirus software to shield them against malware when doing these tasks. However, antivirus software is built for PCs not smartphones. If antivirus developers don’t build something truly compatible with smartphones they are passing up on a profitable market.

Smartphones vs. PCs

Smartphones are very different from traditional laptops and PCs. For instance, each app on a smartphone is essentially a separate system, with its own working environment. The apps on smartphones don’t interact and can’t access each other. This is a huge advantage where security is concerned; as Malware cannot attack all of the systems at once, this makes antivirus software practically unnecessary.

Another reason the separation of apps makes antivirus software less useful on smartphones is that current software cannot scan every app. For this reason, current antivirus software does little to combat the malware that can attack smartphones.

Smartphone Antivirus Programs

We have highlighted a couple factors why the antivirus software that is currently out there is not very efficient for smartphones. But that doesn’t stop companies from offering it. VirusBarrier is a good example of this. It can be bought through Apple’s App Store, but it can’t actually scan anything on a smartphone. Users have to send any attachments or documents they want scanned for viruses through VirusBarrier before downloading it from their email client. This is often both irritating and almost useless for consumers. Until companies start developing more complex antivirus software that is able to actually scan apps on smartphones, there is little reason to buy antivirus software for your smartphone.

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