In spite of some publicized glitches, including an activation bug that affected older devices, iOS 9.3 is Apple's "most stable new release in years," an app analytics firm said on Wednesday.
During the past eight days 9.3 has had a crash rate of just 2.2 percent, easily making it the most stable iOS release in circulation, Apteligent claimed. The software trumped even the latest version of Android, which saw its crashes hover around 2.6 percent.
Other major iOS releases have been much more problematic this month by comparison, especially iOS 8, 9, and 9.2. All three are more crash prone, and last week saw their crash rates briefly shoot over 3.2 percent. iOS 9.3 witnessed a spike around the same time, but remained well below other versions, even the comparatively stable iOS 9.1.
A Web link bug actually affects iOS versions as far back as 9.0.2, and turns out to be connected to Booking.com and its affiliated apps, rather than the iOS 9.3 update. Nevertheless, Apple promised to correct the problem in a future software update.
More seriously, the initial distributions of iOS 9.3 caused users of some older devices to be stuck on the Activation Lock screen. Apple ultimately seeded new builds, but some people may have had to restore their devices via iTunes.