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Android Phones More Prone To Hardware Problems

Posted by Soulskill on from the that-button-doesn't-work-on-mine-either dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "A nearly year-long study conducted by WDS on 600,000 support calls has found that Android phones are more susceptible to hardware faults than other types of devices. '14 percent of all technical support calls for Android devices could be traced to a hardware fault, versus 3.7 percent for RIM BlackBerry, 8 percent for iPhones and 9 percent for Windows Phone 7 devices.' WDS attributed the gap in hardware faults to the disparity in OEMs that manufacture Android devices."

11 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Of course - its by design! by GooberToo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Android runs on the full gambit of available phone devices. That means on the low end, crappy hardware is there by design. Crappy hardware, by design, driven by cost considerations, are going to have less reliable hardware and less QA.

    Basically the story says, "Shit happens. Sometimes free market economics create products which are far from ideal." Is anyone really surprised. Next story. I mean, that's really all that needs to be said. Duh.

    1. Re:Of course - its by design! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Android runs on the full gambit of available phone devices.

      I hate to do this, but please, use the phrase correctly. The word in bold should be "gamut", as in "the full gamut".

      Examples

      (What is a partial gambit? You offer your bishop but your opponent hasn't captured it yet?)

    2. Re:Of course - its by design! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I suspect that it may be slightly more than low end, crappy hardware:

      Some(by no means all, sadly) of the cheap dumbphones are both cheap and nigh-immortal, because nobody gives a damn what CPU they are using or how many UberMarks they get on some benchmarking suit that wouldn't fit in the onboard storage anyway. This means that, while they certainly don't use fancy parts, they are polished and solid designs.

      The Android low end is extra unfortunate because it suffers from cheapskate-itis and much of the hardware gets churned and replaced by a different design all the time.

  2. The other way to read this... by tdyer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that 96.4% of all rim support calls are for the terrible software.

  3. Garbage headline by cabraverde · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WDS did not disclose how many support calls in general technicians fielded for each platform

    So without saying that android phones are more or less reliable in general, what they are really saying is:

    Android phones less prone to software problems.

    1. Re:Garbage headline by hey! · · Score: 3, Funny

      Mod up Parent! If that's not insightful, hell if I know what is!

      Not to disagree about GP post's insightfulness, but I am concerned about your difficulty in being able identifying insightful ideas without its aid. Let me toss a few out:

      • the laws of thermodyamics
      • the biggest homophobes are the people most insecure about their own sexuality
      • the origin of various species by the operation of natural selection upon random genetic variations
      • George Lucas should have quit making Star Wars movies after "Return of the Jedi". Maybe before.
      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. In other news by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    14 percent of all technical support calls for Android devices could be traced to a hardware fault, versus 3.7 percent for RIM BlackBerry, 8 percent for iPhones and 9 percent for Windows Phone 7 devices.'

    In other news: '86% of all technical support calls for Android devices could be traced to a software issue, versus 96.3 percent for RIM BlackBerry, 92 percent for iPhones and 91 percent for Windows Phone 7 devices.'

    Shows how bad Android is doesn't it....

    1. Re:In other news by rbrausse · · Score: 3, Informative

      the author explains his study a little bit in TFAcomments.

      the focus of the study was something like "how many support calls will end in an (expansive) hardware replacement".

  5. Misleading by jonescb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Keep in mind that this is 14% of _support calls_. Using the same logic as the summary, you could say that Android phones have fewer software issues than other phones because only 86% of calls are related to software. That is assuming there isn't a third option in support calls.

    The article even states this, they don't have shipment numbers for devices so they don't have data for the phones that don't require support. Their sample is only phones that people are having problems with in the first place.

  6. Nearly year long ? by Pop69 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought WP7 devices had only been available for about 6 months ?

  7. Did someone fail statistics? by andymadigan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TFA deson't make any sense. The ratio of technical support that ends up being hardware tells us nothing about the hardware fault rate. It could simply be that people are less likely to have other problems with the phone, or that the users are more technical on average and more likely to be able to solve a non-hardware problem on their own.

    For instance, let's say:

    Device A: 2 million sold, 1 million support calls, 100K hardware calls

    Device B: 4 million sold, 1 million support calls, 150K hardware calls

    Device A: "10%"
    Device B: "15%"

    But really, the failure rate for A would be 5% whereas the rate for B would be 3.75%.

    In short, the article's author is an idiot.

    --
    The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.