iOS 8 and Lollipop are the best versions to date of Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems, yet that doesn’t mean either one is free of flaws. Both iOS 8 and Android 5.0 crash, and a new study from Crittercism reveals that it’s Google’s OS that is more stable than Apple’s.
FROM EARLIER: The iPhone 6 might be low-res, but Apple’s highest-resolution device ever is coming soon
Apparently, iOS 8+ crashes slightly more often than Lollipop, having a 2.2% crash rate compared to Android 5’s 2.0% rate. iOS 8 also loses when compared to the previous release (iOS 7 had a 1.9% crash rate), while Lollipop beats bot KitKat and Ice Cream Sandwich, each having 2.6% crash rates.
It’s not clear what makes Lollipop more stable, and there certainly are other reasons apps can crash on a mobile device, but for the time being it appears that Google is winning this battle, albeit by a small margin.
One of the things that might affect stability is, naturally, device type. According to the most recent data revealed by Apple and Google, iOS 8+ is installed on 72% of existing iOS devices, with Lollipop only accounting for 1.6% of Android devices, according to the most recent data posted by Apple and Google. The one critical difference that could affect crash rates is not the number of devices running the latest mobile OS though, but their quality.
While iOS 8 runs on 2012 devices including iPhone 4S and iPad 2, with certain known performance issues, Lollipop has mostly been released for existing or former flagships that are much more capable of handling the latest mobile OS version.
Both Google and Apple are expected to further improve the performance of their mobile platforms, with Apple’s iOS 9 already rumored to focus mostly on stability.
