iPhone 4 Screens Break 82% More Than 3GS

A surprising number of readers have submitted linkage to a story discussing a recently released study that proclaims that iPhone 4 glass breaks way more often than the 3GS's. Although the chart that I found more surprising was the one that said almost 9% of iPhone 3GS screens crack after a year.

Re:9% after a year?

[bloodhawk]

sitting next to someone that is on his 3rd iphone due to screen breakage it is more how incredibly fragile they are rather than what they do with them. I saw him drop his once here at work onto the vinyl floor in the work kitchen and glass shattered, I have dropped my current HTC phone dozens of times, even on concrete a few times and besides the outer casing having a few scratches it is still perfect.

9% actually 6% - Math is hard, let's go editing!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Although to me the chart that I found more surprising was the one that said almost 9% of iPhone 3GS screens crack after a year."

Try ~6%.

First, the graph I believe this statement is citing is the "Reported iPhone Accident Rate" Which has an end data point of just under 8%. This is perhaps "almost 8%", but is not close to 9%.

Second, that graph is all accidents. The chart just down from that labeled "iPhone 3gs" (in a ring-style pie chart) shows the accident breakdown. 76% of the accidents are a cracked screen.

If we combine these: 8% * 76% = 8 * .76 = 6.08% or about 6% of the overall iPhone 3gs accidents were cracked case accidents. (Probably a little less from the initial data point).

It's still an interesting number, but it's 50% different from the statement in the article. That's roughly 1 in 20 screens cracked in a year. That doesn't seem too bad to me, considering how some people treat their phone.

Also, the double rate on the new phone merely suggests that twice as much glass (front and back) breaks twice as often? Or did they only count screen and not case damage?

Math is hard, let's go editing!

Re:9% after a year?

[by (1706743)]

9% annual accident rate implies one accident requiring an insurance claim in 11 years.

(1 - 0.09)^11 = 0.35...I think it implies that after 11 years, about 65% require insurance claims.

Re:My 3g iPhone hasn't cracked yet

[h4rr4r]

If it needs a case the design is poor. My Droid goes naked.

Re:Taking Apple's side on this one... mostly

[h4rr4r]

If it needs a case the design is flawed. My Droid goes naked. It has a raised metal edge that protects the screen.

Re:Gimme a break!

[icebike]

And they get their information from?
Is there a place to report breakage on their site?

Square Trade loses money for every screen break.

Nobody has better stats than Square Trade, because Apple takes one look at it and says user abuse, and does not bother counting it. Same for the carriers.

Nobody is keeping statistics EXCEPT the third party insurance providers. This is largely true in medicine as well. Unless there is a contagious factor, the only nationwide stats you will find on injuries (broken arms) is from insurance carriers. Why you choose to denigrate that fact when Apple is involved but not for heart attacks is sort of, well, suspicious.

Re:My 3g iPhone hasn't cracked yet

[EEPROMS]

So, perhaps this is user error - for not putting an adequate case on 'em.

The problem is Apple recently removed full cover cases [engadget.com] for the iphone 4 as apple engineers recently discovered if dirt or grit gets stuck between the protective case and the back of the phone the glass on the back has an increased probability of cracking [appleiphonereview.com]. So with antenna-gate [theregister.co.uk] just starting to cool we now have case-gate were it doesn't matter how you hold the iphone 4 it breaks [jetlib.com]. You would think Apple would use gorilla glass [corning.com] like many brands including dell with do with their recent full screen mobile handsets. Well I am sorry to inform you Apple just used generic hardened glass on the back and the front to save a few bucks having to pay Dow Corning a license fee.

The bottom line with all this?

[mrsnak]

"In SquareTrade's previous study comparing smart phone reliability from November 2008, we found iPhones to be far more reliable than Blackberrys and Palm Treos. We will be updating this report soon, and we'll have data on the latest Android phone models. It may yet be seen that even with the double glass, the iPhone has an overall failure rate that is still better than the competition."

Re:9% after a year?

[pushing-robot]

Also from TFA:

In SquareTrade's previous study comparing smart phone reliability from November 2008, we found iPhones to be far more reliable than Blackberrys and Palm Treos. We will be updating this report soon, and we'll have data on the latest Android phone models. It may yet be seen that even with the double glass, the iPhone has an overall failure rate that is still better than the competition.

Re:Interesting properties of "Gorilla Glass"

[Timmmm]

BUT, tempered glass gets its strength from really high surface tension

You mean surface compression... The middle of the glass is in tension, and it is protected by the outside surfaces which are in compression (and hence scratch-proof). I never thought about the edges though, that is cool.

Re:Gimme a break!

[BattleApple]

They do tend to slide off surfaces a lot easier than the previous models. I once put mine on a mouse pad that was on top of my pc case (which is almost perfectly level) and it slid off after about 10 minutes; probably due to slight vibration. It's happened to me several times now when I place it somewhere I would never expect it to fall.