iPhone 5S apps are twice as likely to crash (and it's not a big deal)

Scandal! Apps on Apple’s “best iPhone ever” are twice as likely to crash. Everybody freak out.

Or don’t.

A study by mobile app monitoring service Crittercism found that app crashes on the iPhone 5S happen twice as often than on iPhone 5 or iPhone 5C.

Crittercism has monitored hundreds of millions of app launches and found that the typical crash rate for the 5S is around 2 percent, while the 5 and 5C have a crash rate of around one percent.

So yes, “twice as much.” But no, not really a big deal.

Apple’s highly lauded iPhone 5S comes tricked out with a “monster” 64-bit A7 processor. This impressive power enables slo-mo videos and superior audio quality, and of course the device sports iOS 7 – Apple’s latest and somewhat controversial operating system. 

The new device and OS unsurprisingly come with some pesky little issues. This tends to happen with any new hardware or software release, but it never fails to get us techies all hot and bothered.

Users have reported problems with the latest iPhone, including problems with messaging, sensor capabilities, battery drain, security, dizziness from the built-in 3D and animation effects, and getting logged out of apps.

AllThingsD first ran the report and spoke with a Crittercism representative who said that the crashes are more likely to occur on the iPhone 5S because developers couldn’t check their apps on the 64-bit chip ahead of time. Apps were designed and tested for 32-bit chips, and the big difference between the two leads to some inevitable glitches.

The crash rates will likely go down as Apple and developers have more time to address bugs.

The iPhone 5S and 5C are selling well, despite limited availability. They generated record-breaking sales on their opening weekend, and Apple expects the fourth quarter (with the holidays) to be a strong one.

Close to 300 million iOS users are now using iOS 7, and a report by software testing service uTest found that not optimizing for iOS 7 could cost app developers big.

So, yes, the iPhone and iOS7 have some hiccups, and yes, apps may crash 2% of the time, but this is hardly enough to cause hundreds of millions of users to defect to another device/operating system.

See? Everything is OK. Take a deep breath, and give your iPhone a hug. It will feel better soon.