Do iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps? A Data Dive

[Vehl]

[IMG][/IMG]

Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?
It turns out there are many possible reasons. And it can vary particularly depending on whether you are using an Apple iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device.
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In the top quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.15% of the time they launched, while top quartile iOS apps crashed 0.51% of the time. In the second quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.73% of the time and iOS apps crashed 1.47% of their launches. In the third quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 2.97% of the time, while iOS apps crashed 3.66% of the time.
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when you get to the top apps, Android’s lower app crash rate than iOS makes less of a difference because they are both well below 1%. However, there was a bigger difference between iOS and Android app crashes in the top quartile of apps than in the third quartile. In other words, the best apps in Android crashed about one third as many times as the best iOS apps, while the second best quartile Android apps crashed about half as much as comparable iOS apps, and in the quartile, the difference between the two operating systems was even less. So the very top Android apps are achieving a crash rate that, at least in this time period, the best iOS apps can’t match. Why that is, I’m not entirely clear.

However, Android, it should be noted, allows developers to push updates faster than Apple. With Android developers can just send an update to its code, which can show up almost in real-time. But for iOS it can takes days or a week for an update to show up. That means there can be more app crashes while those updates are waiting to happen. Whereas with Android, presumably if developers know there’s a bug they can immediately fix it.

read more here
www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/does-ios-crash-more-than-android-a-data-dive/

Just goes on to show the Apple claim that it "just works" is and has been never a truthful one. Its a marketing ploy that Millions fall victim to ...and end up paying $$$ more than their peers who use the products of Apple competitors.

[stevenleser]

1. Agree, but am also going to be eating a lot of popcorn watching the reaction

The Apple brigade will be along shortly to attack you and this OP in 3..2..1..

[Vehl]

7. :D

I have to call on the droid army

[fascisthunter]

2. the Recent amount of Anti-Apple Spam on this site makes me very suspicious

[Vehl]

5. I only speak from a software/Hardware stand point

I never participated in the worker rights-themed threads that came about recently.

Cheers

[TheWraith]

14. "Anti-Apple Spam"?

So long time DUers posting articles is now "suspicious anti-Apple spam"?

[msongs]

19. not to be confused with "pro-apple" spam lol nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Whatever.

If you use 'puters, some apps will crash.

My experience is seldom crashes. And I use both Mac and win devices intensely.

[Vehl]

4. its the %

And yes, contrary to popular opinion apps/programs do crash! However there is this urban myth that Windows/Android/(insert_non Apple stuff here) somehow crashes more often than Apple made stuff(either hardware or software). And Ive found this to be very incorrect, and statistics have always put the lie to the "Apple is more stable" claim. Still its sad to see this urban myth still live.

As you can see, the crash rate for both IOS and Android are very low ( for the best apps its much lower than 1%). What is striking is that the best android apps(and Android apps in general) are much more stable than their IOS counterparts.

As the Article points out, Android allows devs to send immediate over the air updates, a process which might take weeks in the Curated-Walled garden approach of IOS.

[Aerows]

28. Applications occasionally crash

It's a fact of life. Doesn't matter who makes them. I love my Android phone, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Vehl]

29. Hi there fellow android!

Same here, would never trade it for anything.Imho I think its a reflection of our personality(even though I run the risk of over-generalizing), those who favor more choices and freedom generally tend to gravitate towards android compared to ios.

[Aerows]

35. I just adore mine

I'm one of those that likes open source apps, though, so that's me. It's terrible, but I upgraded my phone just so I could play Angry Birds. I know that makes me a complete nerd, but I'm so happy with the phone that I don't care if it makes me one

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. They crash

I did not say they don't. I also said I use both WINDOWS AND MAC and I have this issue seldomnly on either platform. I also know when that happens it's time to reboot.

I am sure same deal is with android.

I had an early android and to be honest I was not too impressed. It was the hardware, but that's another story.

[MattBaggins]

6. How Dare You

Steve Jobs led Jesus out of his tomb with an iPhone.

Ronnie Saint Raygun was there as well.

[avaistheone1]

10. roflmao

[Aerows]

36. LOL!!

I nearly fell out of my chair LMFAO!

[onehandle]

8. iPhone 4S is Apple's most popular phone yet with 96% satisfaction rate

The iPhone 4S carries the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any Apple smartphone yet, with a new survey finding that 96 percent of users consider themselves satisfied with their purchase.

The latest data from ChangeWave Research, released on Thursday, shows that 77 percent of respondents indicated they are "very satisfied" with their iPhone 4S. Another 19 percent said they are "somewhat satisfied," while just 2 percent fell into the "unsatisfied" category.

That compares to a survey conducted just after the launch of the iPhone 4, when 72 percent of Apple customers indicated they were "very satisfied" with their purchase, and 21 percent chose "somewhat satisfied." By besting the iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S has become Apple's most popular phone yet, garnering the highest approval ratings.

Customers were also asked what their favorite specific features of the iPhone 4S are, and Siri came in first with 49 percent. Second place was ease of use with 39 percent, and the new 8-megapixel camera took third with 33 percent.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/12/01/iphone_4s_is_apples_most_popular_phone_yet_with_96_satisfaction_rate.html

Which Android release are we talking about? Because at any given time, there are dozens of versions amongst the dozens and dozens of Android phones.

Fragmentation defines Android.

[MattBaggins]

12. What exactly is your point?

[Vehl]

17. pls read the article

Before asking me for answers for questions already amply provided in the article.

oh btw, this study compared the Operating systems and not individual handsets, furthermore its in a % and to top it all it even breaks down the crashes by OS version. One could not ask for a more detailed version.

Satisfaction rate and actual hard facts vary. To conflate the two does not make any sense.

Fragmentation defines Android.

I have to reply to this. For example have you looked at the App code for IOS platforms? it uses archaic programming methods..such as hardcoded values!!(hard-coded arithmetic, like y += 7 and MARGIN - 30. lol ) whereas android provides a much more mature and standardized system wherein the Screen resolution is re sized dynamically based on Individual device specs. Unlike IOS which has a set resolution (or its multiples..so they can multiply by 2)


here is a good writeup

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57367867-264/android-screen-chaos-a-feature-not-a-bug/

One of the pesky fragmentation issues Android programmers must worry about is different screen sizes.

With resolution changing from one phone to another, programmers have to figure out exactly how much room they can devote to icons, photos, video game backgrounds, dialog boxes. But, Google argues, paying the price upfront pays programmers back in the long run--and helps them avoid the fixed-resolution difficulties that afflicted Palm.

Indeed, even before the first Android phone hit the market, Google had set on an approach designed to accommodate not just different pixel resolutions, but also pixel densities--the number of pixels per inch. Android framework engineer Diane Hackborn described the company's philosophy in a Google+ post yesterday:

Much of the motivation for this came from experience at Palm/PalmSource. Palm devices traditionally had a 160x160 screen. Later in their life, Sony introduced a 320x320 screen; this worked pretty well by just doubling the coordinates supplied by the application so (unless using new APIs) it still thought it was drawing on a 160x160 screen but the OS would convert those and take advantage of the higher-resolution screen to show sharper text and drawn shapes.

This strategy became problematic in PalmOS later, however, when it wanted to ship QVGA [320x240] screens. These were cheaper to produce since they were used in many other devices; by putting the handwriting area at the bottom of the screen you could still have the expected square area for the app. However their density was halfway between 160x160 an 320x320, giving a scaling factor of 1.5, and here the problems appeared.

Scaling up object dimensions by a 1.5x meant, for example, that "your nice solid lines now get various gray smudges on them depending on how they align with the real screen pixels," she said.

To address Android's challenges with screen sizes and resolution, the operating system uses an idea called the density-independent pixel, variously abbreviated dp or dip.

Android's approach to screen resolution can be baffling, and Android comes with a variety of layout tools. Once you master them, "it's zero-effort-easy to make layouts that automatically resize for portrait/landscape device orientations and varying screen sizes," said Meridian Apps programmer Nick Farina in a blog post.

"If you specify, in your application, a button with a width of 100 pixels, it will look at lot smaller on the 640x480 device than on the 320x480 device. Now, if you specify the width of the button to be 100 dip [density-independent pixels], the button will appear to have exactly the same size on the two devices,"

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more here
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/AzwMc3pSDUU
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s

[Hutzpa]

9. What does Forbes know about technology?

shouldn't they be talking about the worlds richest list?

If you can provide a reputable IT company that specializes in this kind
of talk, then you will have my attention.

[Vehl]

11. Maybe you should read the article? before commenting?

Forbes only reported on a study done by a IT Analysis company.

[Hutzpa]

15. I did read the article

hence my comment, passing someone else opinion as fact is not fact.

The article focuses on apps running on both android and iOS which in
my opinion iOS is much more stable than android by far, as someone
pointed out up thread, apps on iOS seems to be much more stabler than
android irregardless of the phones. When an apps freezes in apple, the app
closes, but in android you will have to hard boot your phone to get the
app working again, that is the big difference.

[Vehl]

20. "seems", "in my opinion " interesting

passing someone else opinion as fact is not fact

I dunno about you..but the article does state that this is the result of a study done by crittercism which is a Mobile App monitoring company specializing in error analysis. Whence did studies become opinions? especially when they have hard values and serious statistics based on 214 Million reports?

http://www.crittercism.com/

In your "opinion" it might "seem" to be that IOS is more stable..but as you said..its just your "opinion" and not a study backed by hard facts.

Speaking of opinions, Imho everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not the facts. The same way evolution deniers are also entitled to their own opinions.

Cheers

[onehandle]

13. Oh, looky here: 'Crittercism, which is backed by Google Ventures' So a company backed by Google...

...finds 'Data' that props up Android.

Also, it's random user serviced data. Meaning it's about as meaningful as an online poll.

Nice try.

[Hutzpa]

18. Exactly

it is about making a bad product good on the market.

[Vehl]

21. And by other companies.lol

Also, it's random user serviced data. Meaning it's about as meaningful as an online poll.

Nice try.

Online poll? lol OK! software from the company needs to be installed on the machines which then monitors the devices and generates the reports.

Crittercism, which is backed by Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, AngelPad, AOL Ventures, Opus Capital and Shasta Ventures, provides crash reporting to app developers. The company provides developers with a wide range of data besides the mobile device and operating system, including, for example, the length of time between when an app is loaded and when it crashes, or how a user is holding a phone–portrait or landscape–when it crashes. It can also help evaluate whether an app’s own code has caused it to crash or whether a third party service SDK being used is causing the problem. This kind of data is important for helping developers plug all the holes in the landscape of operating systems.

anyways, I'm not here to make the horse drink the water, only to take it to it

cheers

[frazzled]

22. Busted

But it's got a pretty pink and blue graph of meaningless data! Eat your Androids out.

[stevenleser]

23. No, that angle doesnt work. They have an iOS app approved, so Apple cant think badly of them

for a comparison, to see what happens when Apple DOESNT like or support you, see Adobe Flash and its non-existent app/support on iOS.

[Vehl]

25. +1000

[onehandle]

37. Your post was confusing.

And contained no citation. I thought that link had something to do with it.

Apologies.

Regardless, Adobe killed Mobile Flash and will likely kill Flash all together fairly soon.

HTML 5, FTW.

[emulatorloo]

38. You are aware that Adobe has given up on mobile flash, aren't you?

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/09/adobe-discontinues-development-on-mobile-flash/

[stevenleser]

40. That doesnt really address my point. Apple deep sixes apps and vendors they dont like

They dont allow them to have apps in the Marketplace.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. Oh shit. It's the Apple vs PC commercials with the 2 geeks all over again .nt

[Vehl]

24. reminded me of this cartoon :D

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also one of my personal favs

[IMG][/IMG]

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. I gotta send that to my brother. He was the one who convinced me to switch from iPhone

to Android when my upgrade was up. I will say that one thing all these phones and OSs have in common is that when you have a piece of shit carrier like AT&T you're guaranteed to be seen by complete strangers yelling at your device in the middle of the street.

[Vehl]

27. Yep, the carriers are horrible

I personally think they are still set in their landline-era mindset.

I usually root my phone the moment I get it. To get rid of the carrier-installed bloatware and to make optimizations. It gives a significant performance boost.

[emulatorloo]

39. Hilarious! Had seen the phone one. Never saw the bicycle/motorcycle comparison

Quite funny, as long as you have a sense of humor. (rare around here these days)

[DefenseLawyer]

30. I've never had a big problem with apps crashing

It's happened as I recall, but not enough for me to give it any thought. If this is a selling point it's not one that hits home with me.

[stevenleser]

32. The data doesn't suggest that either Android or iOS users would have big problems.

The percents are small.