Performance failures in iOS devices outpaced those in Android devices for the second straight period during the third quarter 2016, a new report from Blancco Technology Group indicates.
According to BTG’s quarterly review of global mobile device trends, performance issues – including problems with a phone’s temperature, crashed apps, headphones, call receiver, signal, camera, battery, screen, and more – were reported in 62 percent of iOS devices in the third quarter, compared to 47 percent of Android devices. The iOS failure rate was up four percent from 58 percent in the previous quarter, the report indicated.
Issues appeared to be most prevalent in newer iPhone and iPad models, the report said, including the iPhone 6 with a 13 percent failure rate, the iPhone 6S and 5S with failure rates of 9 percent each, and the iPad Air 2 with a 2 percent failure rate. One of the top issues with iOS devices was crashing apps, the report said. Apps crashed on 65 percent of iOS devices, compared to just a quarter of Android devices, the report said. While crashed apps accounted for just 15 percent of issues globally, the problem was significantly more prevalent in North America, where crashed apps accounted for 72 percent of device issues.
Other top issues in iOS devices worldwide included temperature warnings (17 percent), headphones (11 percent), receiver (8 percent), and call receiver (7 percent). The report chalked several of the iOS issues – including temperature and receiver problems – to the rocky iOS 10 roll out.
On the Android side, the top five issues globally were USB (15 percent), carrier signal (12 percent), camera (8 percent), battery charging (7 percent), and screen (6 percent). As with iOS, crashed apps on Android were more prevalent in North America (21 percent), but also in Europe (23 percent).
BTG found the most sluggish Android devices were the LeEco Le2, Xiaomi Redmi 3S, and Samsung Galaxy S7, but Samsung led the list of Android manufacturers with the highest rate of device failures.
“Although Android devices performed considerably better than their Apple counterparts in Q3 2016, the failure rate increased by 12 percent from 35 percent in the previous quarter (Q2 2016) to 47 percent in the third quarter of 2016,” BTG wrote. “Of the total 47 percent Android failure rate, Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Sony, and Motorola were among the list of smartphone manufacturers with the highest failure rates. More specifically, LeEco’s Le 2 had the highest failure rate (13 percent) among all Android models tested, followed by Xiaomi’s Redmi 3S (9 percent), Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 (9 percent), Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge (5 percent), and Lenovo’s Vibe K5 Note (4 percent).”
BTG said the findings in its report are based on internal data collected from the Blancco Diagnostics platform.
