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Android is developing a
lead over iPhones in terms of smartphone reliability, according to “The State
of Mobile Device Performance and health: Q1 2017” study done by data security
firm Blancco.
The study measures
the reliability of a device based on the failure rate, referring to the
excessive performance issues with the device, which could not be resolved.
Blancco claims that the data used in the study has been “collected from
millions of iOS and Android mobile devices that were brought into mobile
carriers and device manufacturers for diagnostics testing in North America,
Europe and Asia during the first quarter of 2017”. Using the failure rate
as a yardstick, the survey found that the overall failure rate of Android
devices stood at 50 percent for the first fiscal quarter of 2017, while iOS’
failure rate for the same period stood at 68 percent. Both rates had increased
in comparison with the previous quarter — Android stood at 47 percent in
the previous quarter, while iOS stood 62 percent in Q4 2016.
The study also found that apps crash
almost 3 times more on iPhones than Android devices — in test simulations,
iPhones crashed 28 percent of the time, while Android devices crashed 10
percent of the time. Both devices had different causes of malfunctions — while
unstable GPS connection and overheating was the leading cause of iPhone
malfunction, Android devices faced malfunctions either due to weak carrier
signal or camera malfunctions.
Among iPhone models, the iPhone 7 and
iPhone 7 Plus reported the highest failure rate — iPhone 7’s failure rate
increased to 10 percent in Q1 2017 from three percent in Q4 2016. The reason
for this increase could be Apple’s software updates iOS 10.3 and iOS 10.3,
which caused many users’ devices to shut down or freeze. The issues were sorted
with Apple’s iOS 10.3.2 update.
Among Android devices, the Samsung Galaxy
S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and Galaxy S5 reported the highest failure rates.
The fact that both devices had been
premium flagships and high-sellers in the market makes the findings peculiar.
The high volumes of these devices sold could also affect the high failure rate,
the study says. But, the fact remains that smartphone makers are yet to figure
out a strategy that works for a smooth software update cycle.
Even though flagships such as the Samsung
Galaxy S7 and iPhone 7 are launched after extensive testing, the smartphone
companies need to constantly issue software updates for such devices post
launch to take care of vulnerabilities and bugs, which have surfaced
since. Also, they need to port software features to devices. So, in a few
months post the launch, the software looks way different than it was at launch
and there is no way for a smartphone manufacturer to figure out in advance
whether it would be compatible with the device it put out in the market — the
cycle of updates and accommodating them properly with the device still needs to
be figured out.
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