Apple defends against Android faster web browsing claims

Apple has spoken out against claims that Google's Android operating system (OS) is 50% faster at loading web pages than Apple's iOS.

A comparative study between Apple's iOS version 4.3 and Google's Android version 2.3 by web performance specialist Blaze Software measured 45,000 page loads to discover that Android loaded web pages more than two seconds faster than iOS.

Download this free guide

UK IT Priorities 2018 survey results

Download this e-guide to discover the results of our 2018 UK IT Priorities survey, where IT leaders shared with us what they are going to be investing in over the coming 12 months.

Start Download

• Corporate E-mail Address:

  You forgot to provide an Email Address.

  This email address doesn’t appear to be valid.

  This email address is already registered. Please login.

  You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

  Please provide a Corporate E-mail Address.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

By submitting your personal information, you agree that TechTarget and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers.

You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

According to a blog post by Blaze Software, Apple claims Blaze's research was flawed because it failed to test the native Safari browser on the iPhone device, instead using an embedded web viewer in a proprietary application.

Blaze's CTO and co-founder, Guy Podjarny, defended the results and the use of a purposefully written app to perform the measurements. "It's important to emphasise – we used each platform's embedded browser, not our own browser. Embedded browsers are expected to behave, for the most part, the same as the regular browser," he said.

"However, Apple is now stating that its embedded browser, called UIWebView, does not share the same optimisations MobileSafari does… To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first time Apple has openly made such a statement," he continued.