Most apps are free or inexpensive, built by developers adhering to no particular software development standard.
It is therefore of great importance that such apps are tested for the ability to carry out rogue actions such as uploading the address book contents or GPS location to a third party server
. An app may contain no malware, but may well be programmed to transmit a user's address book, location, and any personally identifying information to a pre-determined location. This is something that a laptop software package would almost certainly not do, and is what typically sets the two apart. The salient point being raised here is that the risk of malware may not necessarily be the issue at stake with a mobile device; the app itself might well be the Trojan or the virus, willingly downloaded by the user because it was free and performs functions the user desires.