A new research study published on Wednesday shows that while Android phones continued to show the most device failures in the first quarter of 2016, the platform did shrink the reliability gap a bit with the iPhone.
Based on diagnostics tests run on “millions” of Android and iPhone units, the Q1 failure rates for those platforms were 44 percent and 25 percent respectively, Blancco Technology Group said. The tests were run using Blancco’s SmartChk platform.
That compares to fourth quarter 2015 figures of 85% and 15%, respectively. The study did not provide any data for any possible reasons behind the rather dramatic shift.
Key highlights from the Q1 2016 trend report include:
- Out of the 25 percent of iOS devices that failed, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s models had the highest failure rates – at 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
- While dual SIM emerged as a common source of performance issues in Europe and Asia, it was not prevalent in North America.
- Crashing apps were detected on 74 percent of Android devices, while open/cached apps were found on 44 percent of Android devices.
- A significant portion of the top 10 Android crashing apps in Q1 2016 were security-related, including Lookout, 360 Security, CM Security and AVG AntiVirus.
- Device failure rates were significantly higher in Asia (55 percent) than in North America (27 percent) and Europe (35 percent).
- ‘No Trouble Found’ returns were highest in North America (73 percent), whereas they were far lower in Asia (45 percent) and Europe (65 percent).
Blancco Technology Group says that among Android devices that did fail, the Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S5, and Lenovo K3 Note had the highest failure rates. Over in the iPhone camp, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5s were the problem children, with the 6 accounting for a whopping 25% of all iPhone failures, while the 5s tallied 17% of all iPhone failures.
Failure rates for both platforms tallied at 55% for Asia, 27% for North America, and 35% in Europe. The most common phone problems internationally includes the camera, touch functions, battery charging, the microphone, and dual-SIM technology, (in that order). North America’s biggest reported issues were performance, battery charging, touch functions, mobile data, and the microphone.
