Study: BlackBerry has twice failure rate of iPhone

David Meyer | Nov 11, 2008

(Credit: SquareTrade)

Apple's iPhone has half the failure rate of RIM's BlackBerry in the first year of use, a study carried out by a mobile-phone warranty firm has found.

The SquareTrade study, released Saturday, looked at more than 15,000 handsets that were covered by the company's policies. It found iPhones had a malfunction rate of 5.6 percent in the first year, compared to 11.9 percent for Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones. Palm's Treos fared even worse, with 16.2 percent having some sort of malfunction in the first 12 months of use.

Figures from the analyst firm Canalys, released last week, showed Apple has now overtaken RIM in the global smartphone sales stakes.

SquareTrade had to project their figures for the iPhone's failure rate over a two-year period, as the handset has not been available for that long--nonetheless, that rate came in at between nine to 11 percent. The equivalent failure rate for BlackBerry handsets was 14.3 percent, with the Treo coming in at 21 percent.

(Credit: SquareTrade)

Breaking the figures down, the most prominent malfunctions for iPhone users appear to be touchscreen-related, accounting for a third of all reported issues with that handset. However, 12 percent of iPhone users reported accidental damage to their handsets within the first year of use--the average for other handsets is 9 percent.

"It's likely that any iPhone owner can guess the reason iPhone accidents are so common," the authors wrote. "After two minutes of handling an iPhone, it's impossible to escape noticing that the handsets are incredibly slippery. The form doesn't help, either. The dimensions make for a difficult grip, especially for those with small hands. These two factors conspire to make the iPhone more accident prone than just about any other handset model we've seen."

The report's authors also noted that fewer than half-a-percent of iPhone owners reported battery problems after a year of use, compared with around 1 percent for BlackBerry and Treo users.

SquareTrade's study did not take into account software issues handled directly by the retailer or fixed by firmware updates.

ZDNet UK has requested comment on SquareTrade's report from both RIM and Apple, but had not received it at the time of writing.

(Credit: SquareTrade)

Via CNET News

Filed under: Digital Cameras
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ferdiei

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ferdiei says...
tsk tsk tsk RIM, iphone has just overtaken you in sales recently, and now with higher failure rate to match, excellent.

Nov 11, 2008 20:42

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Guwahati

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Guwahati says...
In my view, I-phone might seduce some young crowed but it can never take away any part of the BlackBerry marketshare as RIM customer profile is quiet diffrent.
Anyways, its a changing world and RIM must upgrade its line of products to current market trends to be safe.

Nov 11, 2008 22:09

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isaac976

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isaac976 says...
ferdiei is a iphone fanboy .. ahha .. to be honest, as i said it before.. and guwahati is saying again .. Rim has its people and Apple has its people.. so market share is well balanced..

Nov 14, 2008 14:32

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Guwahati

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Guwahati says...
And whats your take isaac?

Nov 14, 2008 16:34

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isaac976

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isaac976 says...
i am not bias towards any company .. to me .. anyphone that comes with good feature and looks would suit me well.. for example .. E71 nokia, Sony er.. nothing that catch my eyes for the moment, Nokia E63 and the N5800, all this has its colours looks and functionality, and of course blackberry Storm and 8900m, ok ok .. apple got its kewl funtions of duo touch

Nov 15, 2008 00:32

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