Report shows mobile app crash rates

Mobile apps are twice as likely to crash on Apple‘s iOS operating system than they are on Android, the Google mobile platform, according to a new report.

The Mobile Experience Benchmark report conducted by Crittercism, a mobile application performance manager, found that while the latest Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4 crashed 0.9% of the time, the most recent iPhone, the 5s had a crash rate of 2%.

The findings may surprise some smartphone users, as traditionally Apple’s iOS operating system is regarded within the industry as the more stable, given that it is developed alongside Apple’s hardware in California.

Android devices differ as while the software is managed by Google, several different smartphone makers supply the hardware, including Samsung and HTC, from different locations around the world.

The most recent iPhone, the 5s, was also not the most stable Apple device, with the 2012 iPhone 5 performing best. Across both iOS and Android, smartphones were also less likely to crash than tablets, with the worst performing tablet in the report being the iPad 2, with a crash rate of 2.6% – an expected result as this was the oldest hardware used in the test.

The report also looked into the type of apps most likely to crash, and unsurprisingly it was those in the gaming sector that performed worst. Because of the high level of processing power required to run graphic intense games, the crash rate of 4.4% was significantly higher than any other genre; with media, photo and video the next worse at 1.8%.

Later this year Apple is expected to launch the latest version of its operating system, iOS 8, that could include a dedicated health monitoring app for the first time. The launch is likely to coincide with the unveiling of a new iPhone in September, as has been traditional for the Cupertino-based company.

The Samsung Galaxy S5, which will run the latest version of Android, called KitKat, launches next month alongside three new smartwatches from the South Korean firm that will all run on the Android platform.

Report shows mobile app crash rates