> With iOS 8, your iPhone or iPad can now have a local file system like the one Android users have.

The evolution of file access on iOS is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. A rough feature that came out of Android's laissez faire permission model that was later tweaked and adopted by iOS after it proved useful and was demanded by users.

And I feel like this is still happening - to me the new Files app in iOS 11 is a pretty clear step towards unifying disparate storage solutions in a single interface, and opening up the Files app to third party integrations is another cautious shift towards Android's more permissive model. I would not honestly be surprised if at some point in the future Apple introduces a way to access some system files -- every desktop OS supports it, and the iPad is slowly positioning itself as a desktop replacement. But I dunno, it'll be interesting to see.

When you say, "oh, there's nothing innovative about this", you're glossing over that it took a heck of a long time to get file access at all in iOS, and that Apple is still evolving how file access works on its devices. Android served as a testing ground for that feature while Apple stood back and watched and thought about how they wanted to approach it. Which (again) is a process that's good for users on both platforms.

That’s kind of the point, the way that Apple allowed third party storage providers were done in a method that is still not “permissive”. Apps don’t have access to users files except for the files that the user chooses. If an app wants full access to their Dropbox or Google Drive storage, they still have to have a custom integration like VLC.

And every desktop OS has the potential for viruses and ransomware because of third party apps having access to system files and to what benefit?