A spoofed version of Garage Band, the free OS X software that costs $4.99 as an iOS app, made a brief appearance on Google Play for $4.98 this week along with Apple's productivity suite, iWork.
The fake version of Apple’s music studio was available on Google’s Android apps marketplace along with other Mac products that now have iOS offspring, including iMovie, and iWork's Keynote, Numbers and Pages -- the less widely used the Mac equivalents of Microsoft's PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
A member of Reddit picked up the unlikely instances of Apple’s software on Google Play over the weekend, asking “Is this real or fake?”
The consensus amongst Reddit users was that it was fake and by Monday the apps were removed.
Security companies point out Google has yet again failed to capture fake or malicious software on its official market, Google Play -- a job it has left to its Android Bouncer program, which attempts to automate and accelerate the clearance process Apple uses for apps on its App Store.
“[I]t's clear that once again the Android Google Play store has been found falling short in protecting its users, failing to prevent bogus apps from clearly unverified developers being distributed via official channels,” wrote Sophos security consultant Graham Cluley.
While Apple releasing its office productivity software on Android might seem unlikely, it comes as rumours mount that Microsoft may release versions of Office for iOS and Android via its cloud suite Office 365, <i>The Verge</i> recently reported.
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