Startling Information about App Crashes: iOS vs Android

Bangalore:It is a common knowledge that developers love iOS. They bank on it for monetization. So when a recent study from Forbes unveiled information regarding crashes, it was surprising to note that more iOS apps have crashed than Android ones. 

Mobile app monitoring startup Crittercism compiled data for app crashes between December 1 and 15 and revealed that there were at least 23 different iOS operating systems on which apps had crashed and 33 Android operating systems on which apps had crashed. iOS 5.0.1 alone contributed more than 28 percent  of the total crashes, which certainly skews the numbers. This may be justified as iOS 5 was still relatively novel at that time and many apps still needed to work out the kinks with the new OS. But there were also older iOS versions that had a significant number of app crashes.

Since Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each having multiple updates, app developers have to test their apps on more than one Operating System. Crashes could also be caused by hardware issues, such as the use of location or GPS services, cameras or even the Internet connection. Also, it’s quite common for people to not update their apps–just as they don’t update their operating system. (Android, unlike iOS, allows users to auto-update their apps, which can eliminate few issues.)

When utest went through the 250,000 apps of iOS and Android, it was observed that the average app store rating for Android and iOS was almost the same but Android users had more complaints about performance than iOS users. Later when utest tested the SXSW App across iOS, Android, Windows and RIM, it was found that iPhone & iPad had the highest overall scores and the best Application & Performance data. Why is there a contradiction? It could be because developers are more willing to forgive iOS or they are distracted by the 300 percent app price premium over Android!