Apps crash more often on iOS than Android?

A very interesting report has come to light today from mobile app monitoring startup Crittercism, which puts forward a data driven conclusion that is in contrast with the popular belief. Android is often accused of being fragmented, beta software, bugs and what not, but in reality our friends with iOS aren’t any better off.

According to an analysis of over 214 million apps launches in November and December 2011, in the top quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.15% of the time they launched, on the other hand iOS apps crashed 0.51% of the time. Similarly in the second quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.73% and iOS apps crashed 1.47% and in the third quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 2.97% of the time, while iOS apps crashed 3.66% of the time.

As you can see from the above analysis, it is clear that apps on iOS tend to crash more often than Android, but there are several reasons behind it.

1. iOS 5, which accounted for most number of crashes, was rather new during the sample period
2. Android developers can push update to their apps almost in real-time but for iOS, it can take days or a week for an update to show up. Thanks to the approval process
3. iOS users often don’t update their apps, while Android unlike iOS allows users to auto-update their apps, which eliminates some of the problems.

So what do you think and does this data surprise you? Do let us know your view in comments.

If you want more on the topic, I would suggest you to read the full report at Forbes.com, it includes more details.