New Study Claims iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps

[dgree03]

http://mashable.com/2012/02/04/ios-apps-crash-more-than-android/

"In a new study conducted by the mobile application monitoring company Crittercism, it is noted that iOS applications crash more often than their Android counterparts. The results, as you can see in the below images, speak for themselves: more applications crash under iOS 5.0.1, while Android apps appear to be more stable."

"Android, as you can see, is quite stable — its most recent Android 4.0.1 accounts for just 1.04 percent of mobile app crashes. Compare that with iOS 5.0.1′s 28.64 percent!"

Well, well... what have we here? This is fairly shocking, but it may debunk the iOS is more stable argument. I guess its true, no OS is problem free

 

[Omi]

Our apps crash more because the entire device crashes less?

Seriously though, my iPhone has been many times more stable than BOTH of my sisters HTC Inspires. Interesting article though.

 

[B777Forevar]

Maybe a majority of those crashes come from iPod touch users and their 256MB of RAM
then again, when I used to have a myTouch 4G, I barely experienced any crashes at all...same with my iPhone 4 though.

 

[roadbloc]

Our apps crash more because the entire device crashes less?

I have never had an entire device crash on either iOS or Android. Both to me appear to be very stable OSs despite them both having some silly bugs.

 

[*LTD*]

That doesn't make the least damn bit of sense.

----------

http://mashable.com/2012/02/04/ios-apps-crash-more-than-android/

"In a new study conducted by the mobile application monitoring company Crittercism, it is noted that iOS applications crash more often than their Android counterparts. The results, as you can see in the below images, speak for themselves: more applications crash under iOS 5.0.1, while Android apps appear to be more stable."

"Android, as you can see, is quite stable — its most recent Android 4.0.1 accounts for just 1.04 percent of mobile app crashes. Compare that with iOS 5.0.1′s 28.64 percent!"

Well, well... what have we here? This is fairly shocking, but it may debunk the iOS is more stable argument. I guess its true, no OS is problem free

Post the entire article.

http://mashable.com/2012/02/04/ios-apps-crash-more-than-android/

In a new study conducted by the mobile application monitoring company Crittercism, it is noted that iOS applications crash more often than their Android counterparts. The results, as you can see in the below images, speak for themselves: more applications crash under iOS 5.0.1, while Android apps appear to be more stable.

However, we should note here that the faults regarding iOS 5.0.1 most likely don’t lie with Apple itself. Because this version of the mobile operating system is relatively new, it’s more likely that iOS developers haven’t made their own third-party apps fully compatible with the iOS — resulting in the crashing. Though, on the other hand, iOS 4.3.3 — which has indeed been available for some time — also caused a sizable 10.66 percent of mobile apps to crash.

Android, as you can see, is quite stable — its most recent Android 4.0.1 accounts for just 1.04 percent of mobile app crashes. Compare that with iOS 5.0.1′s 28.64 percent!

If you’re wondering why iOS applications crash so much, there are a number of potential reasons — Forbes discusses some:

This can be due to hardware issues, such as the use of location or GPS services or cameras; it could be due to the Internet connection, that is, how a phone connects to 3G or WiFi, or that the device is not connected to the Internet at a certain moment, or that something happens during the switch between 3G and WiFi. There could also be issues with language support on certain devices. There can also be memory problems if an app uses too much memory.

Furthermore, the article highlights Apple’s iAd system as being a potential problem — it apparently gives “developers problems if they [do] not adhere to certain standards.”

But that’s not all. There’s also the common problem of users not updating.

The above chart is proof that iOS device users aren’t all rocking the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system — people are lingering around on iOS 4.3.3, iOS 4.2.1 and even iOS 4.0. Though some fans do this to maintain a jailbreak or carrier unlock, others just don’t care enough — or can’t be bothered — to plug their handset into a computer and update their firmware. If this same philosophy is adopted regarding iOS app updates (which are designed, in part, to correct bugs which might cause app crashes), then a further explanation for the above data is made available to us.

 

[dgree03]

I have never had an entire device crash on either iOS or Android. Both to me appear to be very stable OSs despite them both having some silly bugs.

This has been my experience too. I still have crashes on my iPad and iPhone, outside of some market apps, it is usually iBooks or Safari Crashing. ON my Tbolt I had a lot of crashes with the browser also

That doesn't make the least damn bit of sense.

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Post the entire article.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Stella]

Mobile safari crashes on me multiple times a day. Overall I've found iOS to be very stable.

 

[kdarling]

Having Safari mysteriously close is a pretty common scenario. I've had plenty of other iOS apps do that as well. Annoying, but you live with it.

Ironically, the smartest thing Apple ever did was to not notify the user when an app crashes. iOS simply quietly falls back to the home screen.

So the iOS user does a small double-take, scratches their head for a second, perhaps cusses under their breath if they lost some typing or search results, and then usually relaunches the app. The crash is usually quickly forgotten.

Android, on the other hand, usually throws a "force close" message up, which is a lot more memorable even if it happens much less often.

 

[wonderspark]

I didn't start having issues until iOS5. Prior to that, I was really happy. I have two lines with AT&T; one iPhone and one Android. As time goes on using both devices, I get closer and closer to just dropping the iPhone line. However, I keep holding out for the next iPhone to come out, because who knows... maybe it will be amazing! My roommate has a 4S, and it's pretty good, but hopefully the next one is better, and iOS5 is refined a bit more.

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Having Safari mysteriously close is a pretty common scenario. I've had plenty of other iOS apps do that as well. Annoying, but you live with it.

Ironically, the smartest thing Apple ever did was to not notify the user when an app crashes. iOS simply quietly falls back to the home screen.

So the iOS user does a small double-take, scratches their head for a second, perhaps cusses under their breath if they lost some typing or search results, and then usually relaunches the app. The crash is usually quickly forgotten.

Android, on the other hand, usually throws a "force close" message up, which is a lot more memorable even if it happens much less often.

I totally agree. The app just vanishes and you're home-screen. I go, "Wut..." and try to relaunch. It really sucks when you find the only way forward is a complete reboot. I haven't been so unlucky with my HTC yet.

 

[malman89]

Post the entire article.

So your point by posting the entire article is that almost every semi-mainstream version of iOS is less stable than their Android counterparts?

I would feel most comfortable betting that the lowest iOS crash versions are due to no one using them. 3.2 isn't perfect, 3.2 is just dead. On the other hand, due to the proliferation of Android devices, the same can't be said. My phone is rocking 2.2.1 for instance.

 

[gnasher729]

"Android, as you can see, is quite stable — its most recent Android 4.0.1 accounts for just 1.04 percent of mobile app crashes. Compare that with iOS 5.0.1′s 28.64 percent!"

That one is quite easily explained by the fact that nobody has upgraded to Android 4.0.1 yet, while everyone is using iOS 5.0.1. How many Android phones have 4.0.1?

But the real problem is that this is a study making claims that are totally unverifiable. How do they detect a crash, and what counts as a crash? Android is Java based, and in Java it is quite possible to put a program into a state where it isn't usable anymore, without it actually "crashing". And with iOS multitasking, an app that is currently in the background can be "killed" by the OS at any time without any negative effect. Is that called a "crash"?

"Percentage of crashes per launch" - well, before iOS had multi-tasking, switching to another app meant quitting the previous one, and starting the new one. With multi-tasking, apps keep running. So if I switch fifty times forth and back between two apps, and then one of them crashes, in iOS 3 it would have been one crash for 100 app launches, but in iOS 5 it would be one crash for 2 app launches.

 

[Dr McKay]

Here is the full graph.

 

[roadbloc]

Post the entire article.

Why did you assume that this thread was an attack on Apple? No-one was implying that because 3rd party Apps tend to crash more, it was Apple's fault. It clearly isn't, its the developers who obviously find it hard to develop a stable App for iOS.

One might argue that a higher crash rate is due to iOS having more Apps in the App Store, although I think now that Android may have overtaken them on this.

 

[KnightWRX]

There's just so many more active developers, and not all of them are even good programmers, for iOS. Really, the gold rush does this kind of stuff, people get into "making apps" because they see a way to make tons of cash easily.

The truth is, writing good code, especially memory management, is just plain not easy. Crashes are most often related to pointers, and there's plenty of that going on in CocoaTouch.

It's not that the OS is harder to write for, I'd say both Android and iOS have similar degrees of difficulty in getting your app out there, but that I feel at least that the developer base is much more inexperienced.

Mobile Safari is of course the exception. Out of all the Apple provided apps, I find it crashes way too often. It's not a big thing though, just relaunch it.

 

[kdarling]

Since in both cases, you have to learn new APIs, the language itself is a factor, IMO.

The supposed goldmine of developing for iOS has attracted lots of people new to programming in Objective-C, if not new to programming altogether.

Android uses Java, which has had millions of experienced programmers for years.

 

[AppleScruff1]

That doesn't make the least damn bit of sense.
Post the entire article.

ROFL! From the master of misleading quotes.

 

[malman89]

That one is quite easily explained by the fact that nobody has upgraded to Android 4.0.1 yet, while everyone is using iOS 5.0.1. How many Android phones have 4.0.1?

The vast majority of Android phones are on the latter 2.3.x versions, while a good amount are in the 3.x series -- both of which still have very low percentages.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

The vast majority of Android phones are on the latter 2.3.x versions, while a good amount are in the 3.x series -- both of which still have very low percentages.

Just going to point out that the 3.x series is tablet only.

 

[KnightWRX]

The vast majority of Android phones are on the latter 2.3.x versions, while a good amount are in the 3.x series -- both of which still have very low percentages.

There are no phones in the 3.x series.

This is the official breakdown including tablet devices, no need to speculate with Android, Google makes the information available and updates it regularly :

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

 

[Steve121178]

I have to reboot my iPhone every other day & Safari frequently hangs which I don't appreciate.

As for crashing apps, the only app that causes me regular issues is Facebook. That's not Apple's fault, it's just a really poor app.