IOS apps crash more than Android Apps

[Charlyee]

Apps running on Apple’s iOS devices crash more frequently than Android apps according to a new study preformed by mobile app monitoring company Crittercism. The data, which was collected between December 1st and 15th last year, spans 23 different versions of iOS and 33 different Android versions. The latest version of iOS (5.0.1) leads all others with 28.64% of all crashes, Forbes reports. The OS build is still relatively new, however, so much of the poor performance could be attributed to apps that haven’t yet been properly updated. Even still, there are older version of iOS that have_surprisingly_high percentages — iOS 4.2.1 was responsible for 12.64% of crashes, iOS 4.3.3 had 10.66% and iOS 4.1 had 8.24%. The chart above, which represents collected from more than 214 million apps between November and December 2011, shows that iOS apps are more likely to crash across all quartiles. A second chart below shows the percentage of app crashes across all OS versions addressed by this study.

iOS apps crash more than Android apps, study shows

[viewfly]

An interesting article., but the thread title is misleading, but says good things about both Android and Apple's OSs. Thanks for posting Charlyee.

There is no attempt to track the same app on both OS's, nor be certain that the right app version is aligned with the right OS version and hardware. It is a useful aid to app developers and the problems they may encounter with the 'real world' out there. That is not just my opinion, but the authors POV too.

Over the 2 week period in 2011 (Dec), it actually says more interesting things about how unevenly people keep there mobile OS's (Android or iOS) up to date and whether or not apps are current too.

Crittercism is trying to help App developers; the data doesn't give information on which Apps crash more, or even reflect on which OS is prone to crashing...the data is not refined that way. Note that the data set includes iOS that are not even generally available, like 5.1

I guess this is what happens when people don't keep updates current and run mismatched apps (at least this is Crittercism partial conclusion too).

Crittercism CEO Levy writes:

So what does all this data mean? On a basic level, you can see that iOS apps crashed more than Android apps during this time period. But Crittercism’s Levy cautions that this doesn’t necessarily mean that overall iOS apps crash more than Android apps. That’s because Apple had recently released a new version iOS 5 in October. Android’s new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system (Android 4.0), meanwhile, had not been widely released on phones yet at the time of this study. “I expect as Ice Cream Sandwich just launched and the new Nexus S phone launched (during the study), we’ll expect the same situation to occur (with Android) as what happened (with iOS),” Levy says.

I could imagine that in Dec 2011 there were 33 variants of Android running; but I would not have guessed that there were 23 iOS variants out there...sort of blows the theory that everyone jumps to update to the latest OS. I knew that Android users don't have that option always (no flaming), but for the most part, I thought Apple users did.

This study (partly funded by Google Ventures, btw), also reflects on the App developer's problems of fixing bugs for a large variety of OS's and also hardware.

Broken into Quartiles (top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25%) of App popularity, their plot is in the first thumbnail.

The sample set was 162 Million iOS vs only 52 Million Android phones: 3:1

(btw the original Forbes article is much better than BGR. Its worth reading).

So in the top 25%, there are under 1% crashes per launch for each OS...pretty small potatoes. Even the bottom 25% the numbers are 2.97% vs 3.66%.

Some more data from Forbes in the charts below.

For myself, I have near zero crashes. The NYTimes app has been and is still the worst. It would also be useful to know if an app crash freezes the whole phone, or just the app. But that is not answered here in this data set.

[Charlyee]

viewfly, thanks for the details and analysis.

For my part the only app that crashed, on Android or iOS was Blogpress on my iPad. Only the app would crash and couldn't be re opened. I would have to uninstall and re install and start over.

Other than that WA still crashes on my iPad from time to time, while in the middle of a reply.

I have had zero incidence on my Androids. Just stating facts

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[dmapr]

I've had the browser and G+ crash on my Android multiple times. There were a few other crashes, but those were the apps that weren't built for ICS so not sure if that should be counted -- Google has changed quite a few things in ICS, not all of them in fully backwards-compatible way.
I only ever ran two apps on iOS: the browser and our own phonegap-wrapped HTML5 webapp. Browser has never crashed, while the phonegap app crashed a-plenty, but there's every reason to suspect it may've been our own fault

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Charlyee viewfly, thanks for the details and analysis. For my part the only app that crashed, on Android or iOS was Blogpress on my iPad. Only the app would crash and couldn't be re opened. I would have to uninstall and re install and start over. Other than that WA still crashes on my iPad from time to time, while in the middle of a reply.

Charlyee, didn't you report that the latest Blogpress version fixed the crashes (link (BlogPress Alternative)) in January?

If so that is a perfect example that Crittercism is trying to address (and why their results are also misleading in regards to the viral web reportings): developer apps crashing due developers not keeping up with OS updates (android or apple).

iOS 5 came out in Oct and OS5.0.1 later. Before a iOS launch developers have weeks to month to run their app and accommodate changes (i.e. bugs). Most OS5 updates came within a week of OS5 launch. For some reasons, the Blogpress developers were very lazy and didn't get a fix until mid-January I know they said it was stalled in the Apple review for weeks, but it seems to me that months went by for them, before they even submitted.. They didn't seem on the ball.


I don't know what the continuing issue with WA and iOS+ iPad is. There is no problems on the iPhone hardware with same OS. Nor with the iPad using other forums (that seem to have the same forum engine) if my memory is right.

This is one of the problems with Crittercism's stats. They don't account for the mixes of hardware, OS and app versions, so the 'conclusions' are misleading.

Originally Posted by dmapr I've had the browser and G+ crash on my Android multiple times. There were a few other crashes, but those were the apps that weren't built for ICS so not sure if that should be counted -- Google has changed quite a few things in ICS, not all of them in fully backwards-compatible way. I only ever ran two apps on iOS: the browser and our own phonegap-wrapped HTML5 webapp. Browser has never crashed, while the phonegap app crashed a-plenty, but there's every reason to suspect it may've been our own fault

dmapr , good examples. The apps that weren't built for ICS are some of the reasons giving for app crashes in general from Crittercism. People are not running the right versions together. So it is a good example.

I think the reasons why I'm so lucky, and most of us here, is that we are geeks about keeping current with new releases.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by viewfly Charlyee, didn't you report that the latest Blogpress version fixed the crashes (link (BlogPress Alternative)) in January? If so that is a perfect example that Crittercism is trying to address (and why their results are also misleading in regards to the viral web reportings): developer apps crashing due developers not keeping up with OS updates (android or apple). iOS 5 came out in Oct and OS5.0.1 later. Before a iOS launch developers have weeks to month to run their app and accommodate changes (i.e. bugs). Most OS5 updates came within a week of OS5 launch. For some reasons, the Blogpress developers were very lazy and didn't get a fix until mid-January I know they said it was stalled in the Apple review for weeks, but it seems to me that months went by for them, before they even submitted.. They didn't seem on the ball. I don't know what the continuing issue with WA and iOS+ iPad is. There is no problems on the iPhone hardware with same OS. Nor with the iPad using other forums (that seem to have the same forum engine) if my memory is right. I think the reasons why I'm so lucky, and most of us here, is that we are geeks about keeping current with new releases.

Yes, that is correct it did get fixed in January. I don't know if I can classify the developer of BlogPress as lazy, he has been updating since iOS5 first came out but running into either more problems or waiting on Apple Review.

You are correct about WA also and this problem comes and goes. I am posting this from my iPad and hoping it won't close on me.

I agree we all upgrade right away but in my case upgrade to iOS5 is what brought on my 2 problems, BlogPress and WA, both had been fine through the prior 2 or 3 updates.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Charlyee Yes, that is correct it did get fixed in January. I don't know if I can classify the developer of BlogPress as lazy, he has been updating since iOS5 first came out but running into either more problems or waiting on Apple Review. .

I would conclude that BlogPress didn't stay on top of things. i don't know why though.

Part of the Apple contract with App developers is this. if you have an App in the Apple store, you have access to all pre-release iOS updates for testing before launch. With 500,000 apps in the store, this gives Apple lots of feedback on the iOS, and developers plenty of time to run the iOS on devices with their software. This increases the chance for a stable launch with software ready to go, for the most part

iOS 5 was released Oct 12th. The first beta was given to developers in June, with beta 7 pushed out in August, and more up to the Gold Master. The final Gold Master release (GM, i.e.. no more changes coming) was Oct 4, 8 days before launch. With such a fatal crash that BlogPress was having, they had plenty of time to correct problems and ship to Apple for approval. Apple told the FCC that 95% of apps are approved in 14 days...even if it was longer....Blogpress' release was not til mid January, 3 months later. No excuse

Many other app updates came out within days after iOS5 launch. I think Blogpress really was not on top of things. They reduced the app price from $4.99 to $2.99 and have a 2 star out of 5 rating...They messed up their reputation...which is part of the service that Crittercism is offering clients, making them aware of how apps fare out there in the market. Sure it is accurate to say iOS messed up Blogpress, but that is how OS updates work...back compatibility is yearned for, but in the end, the apps have to follow where the OS goes.

BTW, back on topic. Those 2 week pie charts show the number of OS's (Android or iOS) out there...and the fact that some Android or iOS have high App failure rates (22-38%) is a reflection of which OS is more popular and how many devices of each were tested.

The real data is the vertical bar chart, since this is normalizing out the device numbers (but still includes all OS's and mismatched Apps). Here, in some quartiles one could say that iOS has 20% to 3 times more crashes than Android, but the overall all % crashes for both is less than 1% to 4%. Pretty low considering the mix-match of hardware/OS/apps versions out there.

When stats emphazie relative % instead of absolute % numbers, I always suspect the data being spun. For example, looking at the quartile bar chart, I could say that as one moves from the top 25% popular apps through the middle 50% and last 25% popular apps, Android's crash rate rises much, much faster than Apples' . That is called spin.

Reading some comments on other forums from IT guys that make sure their users (20,000) are at the top OS update for each device...they disagree with Crittercism...Android has more crashes than the iOS product, they comment.

Anyhow, these low crash rates are good news for everyone, Android or Apple!