Apple's iPhones Were Weighed Down By Repeated Performance Issues and High Failure Rates in the Last Year

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the launch of the first full touchscreen smartphone nine years ago, mobile devices have become entrenched in almost every facet of our personal and work lives. With the global smartphone market predicted to hit about 2.1 billion units shipped in 2021, the battle to capture market share is intensely competitive among smartphone operating systems and device manufacturers. According to the Q4 2016 State of Mobile Device Performance and Health report released today by Blancco Technology Group (LON: BLTG), it's now more reliable to own Android devices than iPhones, which have been weighed down by a multitude of performance issues and high failure rates in the last year.

In particular, the iOS failure rate has consecutively increased quarter over quarter – from 15 percent in Q4 2015 to 25 percent in Q1 2016 to 58 percent in Q2 2016 to 62 percent in Q3 2016. Although the iOS failure rate (62 percent) has since stabilized in Q4 2016, Apple is still playing catch up with Android (47 percent). Additionally, the iPhone 6 has been the worst performing iOS device consecutively for four quarters with the highest failure rate compared to other models – 25 percent in Q1 2016, 29 percent in Q2 2016, 13 percent in Q3 2016 and 15 percent in Q4 2016.

"When devices lag, crash or stop working altogether, one of the first things users do is head into their mobile carriers or the device manufacturers themselves to diagnose what's causing the problem – and fix it quickly and efficiently," said Richard Stiennon, Chief Strategy Officer, Blancco Technology Group. "Mobile network operators and device manufacturers refer to this as the post-sales customer service and repair experience – and speed and efficiency are two of the most critical aspects of this experience. But without an easy-to-use, robust diagnostics solution, mobile users are often left frustrated with long processing times and inaccurate diagnoses, which in turn, leads to lower Net Promoter Scores and unnecessary returns for mobile network operators and device manufacturers."

Key highlights from the Q4 2016 trend report include:

• The newest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models aren't exempt from problems – making the list of iOS devices with high failure rates in Q4 2016 at 3 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
• Crashing apps, overheating and headphone malfunctions have persistently plagued iPhones in the last year.
• Android devices failed less and have shown signs of improvement over time - with the failure rate decreasing by almost half from 85 percent in Q4 2015 to 44 percent in Q1 2016 to 35 percent in Q2 2016.
• Samsung consistently had the highest failure rate among Android manufacturers for five quarters in a row – at 27 percent in Q4 2015, 43 percent in Q1 2016, 26 percent in Q2 2016, 11 percent in Q3 2016 and 16 percent in Q4 2016.
• Camera, battery charge and USB glitches have been a constant source of problems for Android users.
• Despite their reign as three of the most popular social media apps in the world, the Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat apps repeatedly crashed on iPhones in the last year.
• Since first appearing on the list of top Android crashing apps in Q2 2016 (12 percent), the Google Play Services app has shown signs of improvement and its crashing rate has dropped to 10 percent in Q3 2016 and 5 percent in Q4 2016.

At Mobile World Congress 2017 (February 27 – March 2), demos of the Blancco Mobile Diagnostics and Blancco Mobile Device Eraser solutions will be available at Blancco's booth (#5D40 in Hall 5). In addition, key subject matter experts from Blancco will conduct live presentations on emerging mobility trends, mobile processing challenges and mobile security risks.

About Blancco Technology Group
Blancco Technology Group (AIM: BLTG) is the de facto standard in data erasure and mobile device diagnostics. The Blancco Data Eraser solutions provide thousands of organizations with an absolute line of defense against costly security breaches, as well as verification of regulatory compliance through a 100% tamper-proof audit trail. Our data erasure solutions have been tested, certified, approved and recommended by 18 governing bodies around the world. No other security firm can boast this level of compliance with the most rigorous requirements set by government agencies, legal authorities and independent testing laboratories.

The Blancco Mobile Diagnostics solutions enable mobile network operators, retailers and insurers to easily, quickly and accurately identify and resolve performance issues on their customers' mobile devices. As a result, mobile service providers can spend less time dealing with technical issues and, in turn, reduce the quantity of NTF returns, save on operational costs and increase customer satisfaction.

For more information, visit our website at www.blancco.com.

Media Contacts:
SHIFT Communications for Blancco Technology Group (US)
David Heffernan, Account Manager
T: (617) 779-1839
E: [email protected]

SAY Communications for Blancco Technology Group (Europe)
Robert Hickling, Senior Account Manager
T: 44 (0) 20 8971 6427
E: [email protected]

Blancco Technology Group
Ragini Bhalla, Senior Director of Global Communications
E: [email protected]

SOURCE Blancco Technology Group

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