Poll: iPhone owners are more worried about bugs in updates than Android users

iPhone automatic update option (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

A new study highlights concerns that iOS users have regarding whether new updates will introduce bugs.
43% of iOS users who don't update straight away are concerned about bugs.
40% of iPhone owners suggested they might consider switching brands.

A new study shows that 43% of iPhone users who avoid updating iOS straight away do so because they're worried about potential bugs. Over on Android, that number falls to just 34%.

A study of 1,000 people by Router-Network found that just 43% of iOS users update their devices as soon as a new release is available, whereas that number increases to 47% in the Android world.

Ios Android Update Reasons (Image credit: Router-Network)

According to the numbers, some people simply find it difficult to set the time aside for an update and complain that it takes too long to do.

For others, time was the primary issue. Thirty-seven percent of respondents indicated that updating a smartphone takes too long. Between reading news feeds, checking investment account balances, or trying to book a vacation, another 33% simply can't find a convenient time to update their device. IOS users were slightly more hesitant than Android users to immediately update their devices for all three reasons listed above.

This comes soon after Apple released its disappointing iOS 15 update numbers as well as seemingly took the decision to try to push people towards the latest release rather than offering security fixes for iOS 14.

Apple has suffered from iOS software quality in recent years and it's understandable that some people are worried that they could lose functionality or experience bugs post-update. That's something Apple will need to deal with, especially as it struggles to get users to update to iOS 15 and beyond.

The study also found that 50% of Android users were considering switching brands — 40% of iPhone users considered doing the same thing.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.