What 2016 Mobile App Quality Data Reveals About Android & iOS Performance

2016 Mobile App Quality Overview

Driven by the "Internet+" strategy, mobile internet increasingly integrates with traditional industries, reshaping work, life, and consumption scenarios. Developers must focus not only on user needs but also on product quality and reputation.

Key Statistics

Mobile Device Count

In 2016, the total number of mobile devices reached 1.07 billion, with Android devices rising from 660 million in 2015 to 730 million, and iOS devices increasing from 300 million to 340 million.

App Numbers

By February 2017, iOS apps surpassed 2.2 million, while Android apps numbered around 3 million.

Crash Rates

Games exhibit significantly higher crash rates than other apps on both Android and iOS, especially on iOS.

Android Analysis

Industry Crash Rates

Overall Android app crash rates range from 2.0% to 3.6%. Video, social, and music apps have higher crash rates, whereas travel, news, and children’s apps are lower.

Game Crash Rates

Android game crash rates span 4.3%–7.3%. RPG, strategy, and online games exceed 7%, while casual, puzzle, and sports games stay below 5%.

Product Scale Impact

Larger‑scale products (DAU ≥ 1 million) have lower crash rates (average < 1.5%). Smaller products experience higher crash rates, with games consistently higher than non‑game apps.

ANR Rate

Android apps have an average ANR (Application Not Responding) rate below 1%. Games’ ANR probability is about 1.5 times that of non‑game apps.

Manufacturer Market Share

Huawei held the top domestic market share (17%) in 2016, followed by OPPO and VIVO in the top five. The five major manufacturers together accounted for 66.20% of the Android market.

Device‑Specific Crash Rates

Major manufacturers average around 2% crash rate. Lenovo and Coolpad exceed 3%, with common Java exceptions including ActivityNotFoundException and ClassNotFoundException.

OS Version Distribution

Android 5.1 became the dominant version, followed by 4.4, 6.0, and 5.0, together covering 83.39% of the market. Versions 5.1 and 6.0 have crash rates below 2%, while 2.3 shows a 9.17% crash rate.

Common Java Exceptions

NullPointerException remains the most frequent Java exception. IllegalStateException rose from 5% to 10%, and OutOfMemoryError increased from 3% to 6% compared to 2015.

Native Crashes

Native crashes are 1.4 times more common than Java crashes, with SIGSEGV accounting for 78% of native crash types.

Flash‑Crash Increase

Flash‑crash (crash within 0–5 seconds of launch) rose from 12% to 22% compared to 2015, exacerbated by device fragmentation.

Flash‑Crash Causes

Beyond NullPointerException, the top five causes are ClassNotFoundException, permission issues, .so loading failures, and state exceptions, responsible for 71% of flash‑crashes.

iOS Analysis

Industry Crash Rates

iOS app crash rates range from 1.6% to 4.6%. Navigation and product guide apps stay below 2%, while sports, social, and book apps exceed 4%.

Game Crash Rates

iOS game crash rates vary between 4.2% and 9.9%, with sports‑competitive games having the highest rates.

DAU Impact on Games

Games with DAU < 1,000 experience an average crash rate of 9%, whereas million‑DAU games achieve much lower crash rates.

Game Stutter

Game stutter occurs at a rate of 19.9%; Bugly defines iOS stutter as a 3‑second unresponsive period.

Device Crash Rates

iPhone 6 accounts for 21.81% of the market; iPhone 7 holds 7.81%. Mainstream iOS devices generally have crash rates below 2%, with iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 exceeding 3%.

iOS Version Distribution

iOS 10.x dominates with 49.49% market share; main iOS versions have crash rates below 2%, with higher versions showing lower crash rates.

Common Objective‑C Exceptions

NSInvalidArgumentException rose from 49% to 75% of OC exceptions, while NSRangeException dropped from 19% to 6%.

Runtime Crash Reduction

Crashes occurring after 60 seconds of runtime decreased from 78% to 65% compared to 2015.

Conclusion

Understanding these trends helps developers prioritize fixing prevalent exceptions, optimize for dominant devices and OS versions, and improve overall app stability on both Android and iOS platforms.