Android phones failed at higher rates than iPhones in Q1, study shows, these are the worst offenders

posted by Daniel P. / May 13, 2016, 5:06 AM

Android phones failed at higher rates than iPhones in Q1, study shows, these are the worst offenders

Android phones have been flooding the world for the last couple of years in all shapes, sizes and price points, so there is little wonder that they are failing at higher rates than the pricey, limited iPhone editions. Still, the latest phone failure rates study from the Blancco Technology Group comes to draw that conclusion in the form of a nice graph, so no complaints.

What the research firm found out is that the failure rate for Android devices was 44 percent, compared to 25 percent for the iOS-driven gear. Moreover, further analysis shows which Android phones have broken down most often in the previous quarter. That would be a few former Samsung flagship editions - S6, S5 and S6 Active - again no wonder, given how popular they are, but the Lenovo K3 Note sticks like a sore thumb in this graph, indicating some underlying problems with the handset. Ditto for the 3rd generation of the Moto G.

These two are budget handsets, so the failure rate of Samsung's mid- and high-end phones would be more concerning. Until you look at the actual percentage of failed units, that is - the 6-7% tally can hardly be called alarming. Unless you are in the failed device owner category, that is. As for Apple, out of the 25 percent of failed iOS devices for whatever reason, it's the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5s models with the highest mishap rates, or those with the largest ownership base among iPhone fans.

Android phones failure rates Q1 2016

source: Blancco

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36 Comments

1. Zylam

Posts: 1813; Member since: Oct 20, 2010

Congratulations Android fans. You won here.

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:19 AM 5

10. Mxyzptlk unregistered

I want to see how they explain this one.

posted on May 13, 2016, 6:53 AM 0

12. marorun

Posts: 5029; Member since: Mar 30, 2015

Well izim just did it. Android is many many OEM with different quality control. Apple is 1 OEM. so 25% of all faillure are for apple handset vs less than 10% for any others OEM. Still at the store i work Samsung return are almost at 30% of device sold vs nearly 25% for apple device so i would take those number with a grain of salt.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:13 AM 8

19. sgodsell

Posts: 7176; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

This is such a stupid thing, especially since someone could buy a device and take it back if they don't like it or want something else. Some would say it's not working correctly, to get their money back or different device. So this is click bait.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:28 AM 9

25. iushnt

Posts: 3085; Member since: Feb 06, 2013

Ooh, you got the best opportunity to bash both brands that you hate the most

posted on May 13, 2016, 8:14 AM 0

36. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Simple. I use to show this graphic: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/11/17nov09compach0qw83.jpg Its old but it makes a valid point. When Dell released the XPS, it was designed to be a competitor against the Macbook. Peopel use to claim Apple products were so much better than Dell. But what does the graphic say? At this time in 2009, Apple was shipping on average 1.5M Macbooks per quarter, while Dell was shipping 10M computers per quarter. Now even though Dell had a higher percentage point by 1%, look at what it really is saying. It means, yes Dell has a higher failure rate. But even if you subtarct those from sales and assume they were returned and not bought again, Dell still had far more product in peoples hands vs Apple. Also, consider Apple was only shipping 1.5M computers in a full quarter, they should have had a much lower failure rate..AND THEY DIDNT> Now look at the phone. Apple has a 25% failure rate vs Samsung who has a 19% failure rate based on hardware. Apple ships on average 150M iPhone per year while Samsung has been shipping 300M phones per year since the release of the S3. Now so the math. Even if you take away 25% of Samsung 300M phones they still will have mor eproduct in peoples hands doing just fine vs Apple. Even though both Apple and Samusng have had phones explode, most times it has been Apple. For whatever reason it doesn't matter. For a phone that bent, Apple suffered more loses for such vs Samsung who makes more phones. Apple phone has suffered the most connectivity issues vs Apple. So what exactly is the issue? Rad the source fool. YOU HAVE EYES. Here I will repost what Izim posted Failure rate by OS Android: 44% iOS: 25% So as a whole Android has more problems vs iOS from the operating system level. But we know as a fact, if you break down the problems, Apple leads in some of them. For example, Apple has had more issues to ptahc iniOS vs Android. Apple's iOS has more app crashs vs all combined versiosn of Android. http://bgr.com/2015/02/13/ios-8-vs-android-5-0-lollipop-crash-rate/ iOS8 crashed more than Lollipop https://www.google.com/#q=Android+apps+crashes+vs+ios Forbes as of thsi writing in 2012, showed that all IOS releases to this writing crashed more apps vs all versions of Android up to the writing for this article - Steve Forbes https://data.apteligent.com/ios-crash-rate-by-version As of this, iOS9 and 8 crash equally as much, but both are lower than iOs7. Next: Apple: 25% Samsung: 0.44*0.43 = 19% Motorola: 0.44*0.14 = 6% Lenovo: 0.44*0.12 = 5% Asus: 0.44*0.06 = 2.6% LG: 0.44*0.05 = 2.2% Consider this. Apple sells on average, 50% less phones vs Samsung. Yet they have a higher failure rate. Not only does Samsung sell 300M phones in a year, they sell on average over 50 different models. Now they arent 50 specific models. Most are alternative models sold in different markets. Like we know the S and Note...

posted on May 13, 2016, 4:10 PM 1

37. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

...both have multiple models. Liek the Duos models which are design for countries that use Dual Sims. Or the Active models. The Galaxy family allow is probably 30 models. So do the math. Samsung sold 300M phones in 2015, take 19% of them away or lets just make it 20% to be even, because I work better with even numbers. So that 60M phones that potentially have issues. Apple sold 200M phones for their last fiscal year. Sure they only lost 8M phones. Much less, but then that means Apple sold only 192M good phones that still potentially will break sooner than a Samsung device. Apple's quality should be better because overall they make just one phone. If Samung lost 60M phones to failures, this is a combination of all their sellign products. So as of 2015 for example, Samsung was making 60 different individual phone models. That means on average, Samsung lost only 1M phones per model. While Apple lost 8M for one model. Well its multiple models because its at least 5 individual models, but since they are all counted as one...Apple lost more. DO THE MATH. The fact is, the more products you make, the higher the rate of failure. But in this case its not true. Apple has a higher rate of failure. They are dwarfed only because they make less product overall. They should have the least failures. So yeah...please explain that!!!!!!!!!!!!

posted on May 13, 2016, 4:19 PM 1

40. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

You are the one who needs to expalin. Obviously you did go to school. Here is is in summary. Out of 44% of failed Android devices, Samsung had 2 leading models. 7% were the S6 and 6% were the S5. The rest were the other OEM's. Apple had a 25% failure rate as a whole for all iOS devices. Out of that, 25% of those devices were the iPhone 6 and 17% were the iPhone 5S. What I i want to know is if tjsi is just the S6 specifically, or all the S6 models as a single model name? also same with iPhone, does the iPhone 6 include the S Plus too? or is it just the iPhone 6 as a single model? Either way, Apple flagship is way worse consider the iPhone 6 outsold the S6 and the 5S outsold the S5. Looks like the Galaxy S5 isnt the POS everyone keeps saying ti is. The 5S which even myself loves is a bigger piece of shiznit in a smaller package. I would like to se the list of what is failing on the iPhones since they listed what was failing for Android. Samsung had camera issues mostly and connectivity issues. I know for a fact, every iPhone has had connectivity issues that required patching. EVERY SINGLE ONE! So can you not read? Or is it because Apple is gettign the worse of the news, you are blind to it. Because we know you all can't handle Apple facts. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!! How come Apple has more problems that one phone vs Samsung who makes 60 models in a given year? TIME FOR THOSE PRICES TO DROP!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much for Appel devices havign resell value. What good is it, if as soon as you buy a used one, it dies. Now to be fair, my iPhone 4 finally died last month. I've had it since pre-order shipping. But it really hadb't bee used until 2014. It had stop holding a charge which is why I stopped using it. Now it wont even turn on unless its plugged in. Easy fix, I could have just bought a new battery. Instead I went an got a 4S on eBay. It doesn't hold a charge either. I only got it, because I need iPod Out. And the iPhone 5 or higher dont support it. And it was cheaper to buy an iPhone vs an iPod Touch 4th Gen or an iPod Classic with the storage space I wanted. But I only paid $112 on eBay. so if it last a year I will be happy.

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:03 PM 1

49. elitewolverine

Posts: 5192; Member since: Oct 28, 2013

After that entire dribble that took 3 long long long posts to prove nothing...do you know how % work? From your defense of this, you don't. I can clearly tell you have taken 0 statistics classes or courses. If you have a failure rate of 6% and me 7%....and we both sold more than 100. Then at any random check of 100 phones, we would have 6 phones are bad and 7 phones bad. Not matter if we sold 100 or 10million. All it means with this type of % is how many bad phones you have out there. Example: You have 6% failure rate, at 100m customers, you have 6million bad phones out in the wild. I have 1million customers, I have 60,000 bad phones out in the wild. And while android is grouped together as a whole. It has to be, when Asus gets a hold of android, they don't modify the base android stack since they are using Google Services, what that means is that it has gone through all the necessary steps to be certified by google, that any google app will run on the damn thing. Now we can argue they have made other changes that could affect app performance. But this is the price you pay when you have open source modifiable code. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot rant about how powerful android is, and how they have all these OEMs and phones to choose from if you blatantly ignore the downside of this. This is the definition of a fanboy, ignoring mathematical FACT, and ignoring and calling fowl the very things you android nuts love to bring up when it comes to an OS war.

posted on May 16, 2016, 7:39 AM 0

47. joey_sfb

Posts: 6794; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Mxy, now i know why a $60 16GB lighting usb drive is a good deal.

posted on May 16, 2016, 3:45 AM 0

41. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Much love to all Android fans. As we have shown, the gras sis truly greener on the other side. Even with all ist features and gimmicks, we still have less problem than a featureless dumb phone. I think I will hang this article on my wall. Apple fans, prepare for us to post this link everything you make hypocritical claims about how much better the iPhone is. The iPhone does less, has less features, cost the most and has the most failure rates by OEM. Samsung needs to use this to push Samsung S and Note slaes up. Oh and notice, out fo the Galaxy phones that lead, the Note wasn't even in the list. The Note is the perfect phone and the best beast. Where is Darkk...where are all you Apple fans. Let's hear you all talk now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Notice nothing from these people yet. THEY HAVE BEEN PERMANENTLY MUTED!!!!!!!!! for today anyways.

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:07 PM 1

2. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

so... how does this study works?? and at glance, I notice S6 failure rate = 7% and iPhone/iOS failure rate = 25%... so we can blame cheapo model of android for this? right?

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:31 AM 9

5. Martin_Cooper

Posts: 1774; Member since: Jul 30, 2013

- Out of the 44 percent of Android devices that failed, the Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Lenovo K3 Note models had the highest failure rates. - 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. Your math is wrong and makes no sense. How can the highest failure rate out of 44% be less than the highest failure rate out of 25%?

posted on May 13, 2016, 5:55 AM 0

9. jeevanand88 unregistered

If u want to compare the failure rates with apple company, u shoud comapare all mobile companies in seperate..! not as whole as android devices!! Android explicitly covers the whole world which means that the rate of sale of android devices are way more than apple. But apple mostly covers US and china by a large margin. In reality in small scale u r comparing a single apple mobile with 20 android handsets. out of 20 u cant say all 20 are not gonna fail. even if 1 failes among 20 then apple won here...

posted on May 13, 2016, 6:14 AM 6

38. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Yeah, but out of the total of 44% for Android as a whole, Samsung had only 2 models at the top the S6 at 7% and the S5 at 6%. How many S6's did Samsung sell last year? I will just guess and say 35-45M as a guess. So if only 7% were bad for one model, Apple has 25% of all selling iPhone last year lead by the 6 and 5S as you stated. Since apple likely sold more of just these 2 models alone, that means the S6 at 7% has less problems vs Apple's own iPhone 6 and Samsung has less problems with the S5 vs Apple's own iPhone 5S. Now did I read that correctly? So Apple as a whole is having more issues with vs Samsung. So that means all the other phones with issues, are those cheap POS phones they make for low-end markets...right? Please correct me if I am wrong. I am always open to be corrected.

posted on May 13, 2016, 4:40 PM 1

6. jeevanand88 unregistered

The height of misinterpretation of Android mobiles!! Congratulations PA!! Actually u won here!!

posted on May 13, 2016, 6:09 AM 12

11. Mxyzptlk unregistered

They have a source in the article. Don't make excuses.

posted on May 13, 2016, 6:55 AM 0

13. marorun

Posts: 5029; Member since: Mar 30, 2015

25% of all faillure go to 1 OEM called apple. when they dont have more than 20% market share. this alone say it all they have the highest % of faillure compared to all other OEM when comparing OEM to OEM.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:15 AM 12

39. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Now when IOS users brag about how great the iPhone is, we can show them how the iPhone as a whole is the leading most failur eprone phone in the world for its cost. The iPhone 6 had a failure rate of 25%. Now question. TO be fair, does anyone know how many they sold. We all know for Apple's fiscal 1st quarter they sold a total of 75M iPhones. But that is based on 5 selling models. How many were just the iPhone 6, because we know as a fact that in once quarter Apple can only make so many phones. Then next. As bad as blogs stated the Galaxy S5 was, we don know Samsung sold rought 35-40M of them. yet only 6% were failures. Yet the iPhone 5S suffer 17% in loses. How many iPhone 5S did Apple sell? if I was faire and just say they sold 35-40M of them, that means they lost way more than the S5. So now we know the iPhone is certainly a big piece of shizznit. The Galaxy S is KING. We now have the facst showing the iPhon eis what we have said it was especially since jobs died. It turned from a high quality device, to an overpried piece of shizznit. WE NOW HAVE THE FACTS. CAN WE NOW STOP PRAISING APPLE FOR THEIR POS. Oh and as I recall, the top problems for the iPhone 6 models. The 128GB model had a failing internal storage that cause the phone to turn off and not come back on. The 6 Plus, bent in peoples pockets for now reason. http://www.iclarified.com/45116/tlc-nand-flash-memory-in-128gb-iphone-6-plus-may-be-causing-unexpectedly-crashes-boot-loop Apple needs to copy Samsung's quality with the S and Note. Notice the Galaxy Note didnt even make the list and the 2 Galaxies combined still had less failures vs one iPhone.

posted on May 13, 2016, 4:49 PM 1

14. jeevanand88 unregistered

Even the source might not have a stupid heading like PA did!!

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:20 AM 5

18. Scott93274

Posts: 6031; Member since: Aug 06, 2013

Mxyzptlk suffers from penis envy.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:26 AM 13

22. 444777

Posts: 399; Member since: May 02, 2016

Even if Apple does bad he still gives credit to them. What kind of fanboy is that. Beyond unbelievable.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:37 AM 7

7. legiloca

Posts: 1676; Member since: Nov 11, 2014

Curious study, we should have a lot more of these to know which OEM or OS is more consistent or inconsistent with their products.. clap clap

posted on May 13, 2016, 6:11 AM 0

15. sabretigger

Posts: 82; Member since: Sep 15, 2012

I've worked at a phone store before and would agree samsung are the least reliable, and my own experience with them haven't been great either. my s2 was terrible out of the box, but luckily managed to get replaced after half a year. my current s7 has crashed or required a restart more than other android handset I've owned, bar the s2.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:21 AM 0

17. Panzer

Posts: 282; Member since: May 13, 2016

You can buy 3 Moto G's to a base iPhone 6s and Apple fans are calling this a win. Pretty sad numbers when you control the software and manufacturing process.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:25 AM 2

21. leonardke3

Posts: 9; Member since: Dec 10, 2014

The comparison is not about phone oem but between operating system

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:33 AM 0

23. talon95

Posts: 992; Member since: Jul 31, 2012

Can you please share the raw data. The presentation of this data is horrific and completely meaningless. Samsung can't have 4 in 10 phones fail total, if their worst phone failure rate is 1 in 10 for a single model. It's like someone doesn't know the difference between addition and averaging. Better titles are needed to define the data sets. Fix it.

posted on May 13, 2016, 7:39 AM 1

32. tbacba

Posts: 134; Member since: Mar 31, 2010

I agree. The 43% for Samsung is apparently the number of their phones out of the total number of failed phones, not their failure rate. E.g , if Samsung sold 1,000,000 phones and only one failed, and another mfg sold 10 phones and one failed, this analysis would say Samsung has 50% of the failures. Crazy!

posted on May 13, 2016, 11:29 AM 1

33. talon95

Posts: 992; Member since: Jul 31, 2012

It's not totally PA's fault. The data came direct from Blanco and they say they can't give out any of the raw data. Still, if I was one of these manufacturers getting lumped into a huge group in such a way that it reflected badly, I would probably start considering legal action or at least releasing data to show my product performed better than the average. PA shouldn't publish such useless averages. We will have to assume they are valid numbers, but using this data to buy a phone is impossible. The high amount of issues generated by all the low cost manufacturers, on low end devices sold mostly internationally will greatly affect the numbers. The data variance for iOS is probably much less that with Android. It would only be relevant to me if based on a known device, OS version, carrier and region.

posted on May 13, 2016, 2:11 PM 1

34. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

What I find odd is that just a short while back there were articles saying Apple crashed more than Android. Now that Android has actually been getting more stable recently, it's crashing more?

posted on May 13, 2016, 2:32 PM 2

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