After analysing millions of returned phones across America, Asia and Europe, mobile diagnostics firm Blancco Technology Group has concluded that iPhones are now significantly more likely to fail than Android phones.
Their latest report, released this morning, analyses returns from Q4 2015 to Q4 2016, and counts the number of devices with “excessive performance issues that could not be resolved.” Blancco calls this the “failure rate.”
During that time, the report found:
Apps crash twice as often on iOS than Android
The iOS failure rate rose from 25% in Q1 2016 to an incredible 62% in Q3 and Q4 2016. Android’s is 47%
Meanwhile, despite the Note 7, Samsung’s failure rate fell by more than half from 43% in Q1 to 16% in Q4
The iPhone 6 has been the worst-performing iPhone for four quarters now
iPhone users crashing apps, overheating and headphone malfunctions, while Android users were frustrated by camera glitches, charging issues and USB problems
Google Play Services is less of a ball ache than it was: from a crash rate of 12% in Q2, six months later it was down to 5%
Despite its improved stats, Samsung is still the highest-failing Android manufacturer – a fact that will not surprise former Note 7 owners. However, one of the devices singled out for poor performance in the report is in fact the well-received S7 Edge, with problems including “glitches with the fingerprint scanning, the device randomly freezing or restarting, alerts or notification sounds not playing, overheating and other problems.”
The biggest problem for iOS users last quarter was crashing apps, with Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat among the worst offenders. Meanwhile, while ‘droid users had less issues with app crashing – it was only the fifth most common issue – the apps that crashed their phones were very different: the IMS Service (for WiFi calling), address book, and Google Play Services.
So it seems while iOS apps crash more often (57% vs 22% in Q4), the apps that do crash are third-party ones, whereas Android has issues with its own processes. Android trips over its own feet while Apple won’t play nice with third parties, you say? Groundbreaking.
