A study finds what many smartphone addicts already know but may not want to admit: Androids have a much higher rate of hardware problems than their competitors.
The survey, conducted by British telecom consulting firm WDS, tracked 600,000 support calls over a 12-month period and found that of the support calls seeking help with Android handsets, 14% were for hardware issues.
Windows Phone 7 had a 9% rate for hardware-related support calls, Apple iPhone 8% and Research In Motion's BlackBerrys 3.7%.
The study found that instances of hardware faults varied between OEM deployments, with some brands showing a propensity to display failures, others keypad/button failures and some battery issues. Unfortunately, it didn't name the manufacturers associated with each type of failure.
Runaway success
�Android has been a runaway success and has been instrumental in bringing smartphone technology to the mass-market,� said Craig Rich, Chief Marketing Officer at WDS. �Its open nature, coupled with the greater availability of hardware components and a reduction in manufacturing costs has seen some manufacturers bring the price-point of Android smartphones down below US$100.�
�However, the Android ecosystem is not without its faults. Many of the factors that have led to Android�s success are driving varying levels of hardware quality into the market, in turn delivering an inconsistent customer experience,� Rich said.
Why the high Android failure rate? Isn't Android software made by the almighty Google? Yes, but as a semi-open-source platform, Android can be used by just about any manufacturer. WDS included 35 different Android manufacturers in its study.
The other major platforms all maintain tight control over their hardware. Windows Phone 7 licensed to only five manufacturers while both the iPhone and Blackberry have just one manufacturer each. In fact, both Apple and Blackberry-maker Research In Motion manufacture their own phones and thus control every step of the design and manufacturing process.