Startup mobile app monitoring firm Crittercism has released a new report which is bound to get people talking about Apple vs. Android all over again. As if the fanboys ever take a break. The crux of the finding is this: Apple and its various OS iterations is not any more stable than Android and its ‘fragmented’ ecosystem.

In data collected between December 1 and 15 Crittercism found that there were at least 23 different iOS operating systems that crashed. Android, for its part, had 33 operating systems that crashed. Leading the way with the most crashes was iOS 5.01 with 28.64% of overall crashes. Considering just how new the OS it’s no wonder that apps didn’t play nice. However, even older releases such as iOS 4.2.10 had 12.64% of crashes while iOS 4.3.3 had another 10.66%. Android’s worst offender looks to be 2.3.3 at 3.86%, followed by 2.3.4 with 3.65%.

Crittercism analyzed a total of more than 214 million app launches from November and December 2011 from apps that use its service (see graph at top of this article). There were about 3 times more app launches for iOS that Crittercism analyzed, about 162 million to 52 million. But the analysis examined crashes as a percentage of each app launch, so this data takes out the issue of there being more iOS than Android apps.

What causes crashing? Plenty. As Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy reminds us, it can be as a result of location/GPS services, data connection, language support, advertising platforms, and too much memory usage.  I’ve witnessed every one of these reason on multiple Android devices over the years and I bet you’ve had a few yourself.  Another thing to keep in mind, as it pertains to Android vs. iOS, is that Android allows users to auto-update apps.  As new versions of Android roll out and developer make hidden changes, us users can go about our business without thinking about compatibility.  That is, if developers care about feedback and usability.

While we note that this is only one report, from one particular time frame, it’s nice to be on this side of the fence once in a while.  I suspect that Android will see a new round of issues with 4.0 and the various releases trickling out with new models and updates.

Forbes