The “failure rate” of Android devices is nearly double that of iOS device, although iOS apps crash 7x more frequently than Android apps.
Those are two of the findings from respected mobile diagnostics experts Blancco Technology Group, who have just released their latest mobile device performance and health report.
Measuring performance of iOS and Android devices in the third quarter of 2017, iPhones were found to have a device failure rate of 16 percent, compared to 30 percent on Android.
Failure rate doesn’t refer to catastrophic failure, i.e. phones that no longer work. Instead, Blancco uses the term “failure” to cover a wide range of both first-party and third-party issues, from Wi-Fi connectivity faults to unexpected phone reboots.
According to the firm, the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 Plus models are particularly prone to high failure rates — with the iPhone 6 leading the way with 26 percent of failures. The Android manufacturer with the highest failure rate is Samsung, with 53 percent of all failures.
Interestingly, both Android and iOS devices have seen their failure rates increase quarter-over-quarter — with the failure rate for iOS devices increasing from 12 percent to 16 percent. Android failure rates, meanwhile, increased from 25 percent in the second quarter to 30 percent in Q3.
New and different challenges
Speaking about the current generation iPhones, Russ Ernst, VP of Product Management at Blancco, said that: “There’s no doubt that Apple will continue to innovate with these newest models. But with drastic design changes and the introduction of new technology features, such as the facial recognition feature on the iPhone X, there may be some challenges and performance issues that will arise. If and when these occur, accurately diagnosing and resolving those issues will be key to improving the user experience and customer satisfaction.”
At the end of the day, comparing Androids and iPhones can be like comparing oranges and, well, apples. The failure rate stats tell some of the story (and Blancco is the most respected name in this kind of research), but there are issues like security and overall reliability that also factor into the overall user experience.
What’s the most frequent “failure” you experience with your smartphone? Let us know in the comments below.
