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iPhones and iPads Fail More Often Than Android Smartphones (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The main question when picking a new phone is whether to choose an Android one or an iPhone. A new study coming from Blancco Technology Group sheds some light on which devices are the most reliable, based on reliability. The study entitled State of Mobile Device Performance and Health reveals the device failure rates by operating systems, manufacturers, models and regions, as well as the most common types of performance issues. The report reveals that in Q2 2016, iOS devices had a 58% failure rate, marking the first time that Apple's devices have a lower performance rate compared to Android. It seems that the iPhone 6 had the highest failure rate of 29%, followed by iPhone 6s and iPhone 6S Plus. Android smartphones had an overall failure rate of 35%, an improvement from 44% in Q1 2016. Samsung, Lenovo and LeTV were among the manufacturers with the weakest performance and higher failure rates. Samsung scored 26% in failure rate, while Motorola just 11%. The study also reveals that iOS devices fail more frequently in North America and Asia compared to Android. Specifically, the failure rate in North America is 59%, while in Asia 52%. The failures could be influenced by the fact that the quality of smartphones shipped around the world varies.

7 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Re:iPhones and iPads Fail More Often Than Android? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So is /. bad at basic comprehension or basic arithmetic?

    No, the math failure was the fault of the linked article's author, Alexandra Vaidos.

    Not to mention that calculating a metric based on applications not always launching and referring to that as the phone's "failure rate" is rather ludicrous. Plus if iPhone or Android apps were truly that unreliable, nobody would be using them - the numbers are simply unbelievable.

    But, in the end, a bunch of us clicked on the story link... so Ms. Vaidos accomplished her goal.

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  2. Re:Good lord.... by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They have some weird math going on though. iOS devices have a 58% failure rate, and of those iOS devices the iPhone 6 has the highest rate with 29%.

    So the weighted average between 29% and a bunch of lower percentages is 58%?

  3. Re:Good lord.... by chipschap · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The stats are dopey. 58% fail rate in what period of time? Did 58% fail in Q2 or whatever? Do 58% fail in the first two years? I can't make any sense of these stats and TFA is no help. What am I missing here?

  4. Define "fail" by Sneeka2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it anywhere explained what exactly "fail" means? Apparently more than an outright "phone bricked", it also includes software issues of all kinds, including Facebook crashing. There are so many problems with including such numbers that an entire meta study is necessary to normalize the resulting numbers into something comparable, which this article doesn't even begin to do.

    Unless and until the exact criteria are published, this is worthless horseshit.

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    Bitten Apples are still better than dirty Windows...
  5. Re:What kind of stupid ass reporting is this?! by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The article is stating that these problems occur more often on iOS vs Android, not that these problems occur on every phone"

    The title of the article is:

    "iPhones and iPads Fail More Often Than Android Smartphones – Study"

    This means the authors of the article want you to think that Androids are better than iPhones.

    Yet a Wifi connectivity issue is given the same weight as a touch screen failure or a random reboot because those problems only affect 1/3 of Android phones whereas 2/3 of iphone users have wifi connectivity problems.

    What's the point of an Apples (heh) to oranges comparison other than the click-baity title then?

    There's no real information here. Just massaged statistics for an ad hit. It's worthless for a comparison and, worse, the raw data doesn't make any sense in the article either so it's doubly worthless.

  6. Re:What kind of stupid ass reporting is this?! by MrKrillls · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm no Apple fan either. I love to take a shot at Apple any chance I get, however the math here is so bad I can't make sense of it. First, the article uses the word "fail" which I associate with complete loss of function, bricking, dead, unrevivable...so I thought the premise was dead iphones vs dead androids. No. Just how many were not perfect. 100% of cell phones are imperfect. it's a tie folks.

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    Don't step on the baby.
  7. Re:BS by tipo159 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mod this up.

    By the apparent criteria of this "study", all devices fail 100% of the time because, at some point, one of its many capabilities will fail to work when someone tries to use it.