Study Finds iPhone Twice As Reliable As BlackBerry

An anonymous reader writes "As reported at TechCrunch, 'The iPhone is twice as reliable as the BlackBerry after one year of ownership, a new study by SquareTrade finds. SquareTrade, which sells extra warranties for cell phones and other devices, looked at the failure rates of 15,000 phones covered under its plans. The malfunction rate for iPhones after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for the BlackBerry and 16.2 percent for the Treo.' The full report (pdf) can be found at the SquareTrade site."

Comments

OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[negRo_slim]

What is considered a malfunction? And perhaps having the latest and greatest object of the year inspires people to treat the phone with a little more care?

Re:OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[dreamchaser]

Not to mention that most Blackberry users have devices paid for by their employer. The majority of iPhone users buy their own phones.

Re:OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[darkmeridian]

My coworkers and I get our Blackberries through the firm, and you'd be surprised how many old-model Blackberries get dropped once the new models become available. "Only the partners have the new ones?" "Yeah. We're relying on attrition to wear down the associates' Blackberries." Next day. "I need a new Blackberry. I dropped mine."

Re:OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[nine-times]

Right. Research suggests that the iPhone are reliable, so their methods must be wrong. Because I know a guy who's iPhone broke, and we all hate Apple anyway, so lets be as dismissive as we can.

It couldn't possibly be because the devices are durable and designed pretty well.

Re:OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[syousef]

What's more, all modern BlackBerry handsets have an Auto On/Off feature. If you're really so concerned, have it switch itself off at 6pm and come back on in the morning.

Most people don't have a problem with the device. Even getting into the habbit of manually switching it off wouldn't be too much to ask. What's more difficult is managing your boss' expectation that the thing is on. For that very reason I don't want a Crackberry.

Re:OMGITSSOOOOOSHINY

[Fluffeh]

Either way, on in twenty iPhones and one in ten blackberry's? That's disgraceful. Could you imagine if one in ten intel chips failed within their first year? How about one in ten hard drives? How about one in ten cars/planes/boats?

bias.

[Kingrames]

Sounds heavily biased.
There are plenty of people who would wait until there was more than one problem with their iPhone before calling it in for repairs. But those with a blackberry might be more quick to respond to problems.

Did the study really only count the number of times someone sent their phone in for repairs, or the actual defects in the hardware?

Re:bias.

[powerspike]

I have to agree with this totaly. As a business user, if something goes wrong, i want it fixed asap, as it will affect my job in someway (this is a generic view on any device i use as a part of my workflow). As an indivual, I have a itouch, i have had several issues withit, but it still does what i want it to, so i haven't bothered to take it in for repairs yet, but it needs it (the case is coming apart - bad glue?). but you get the point. business users will raise issues alot faster then retail ones.

Re:did the study only measure reliability?

[smussman]

I'm willing to make that measurement for you in a highly standardized way, but I'm not sure what the SI units for "cuteness" are. Could you enlighten me on this?

Re:Or??

[ThePhilips]

Can't speak of iPhone - I can only say to BlackBerry.

In my company we have so called "standby support," when people are getting a BlackBerry from company and have to respond to customer calls.

The amount of abuse BlackBerry can survive is really impressive. Generally, BlackBerrys assigned to standby support pool last for 8-14 months. But the phones rarely have a quiet hour in their lives.

So my biased theory would be that BlackBerry and Treo are failing more because they are used in business more and thus are open to more abuse.

Twice as reliable?

[sleeponthemic]

The malfunction rate for iPhones after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for the BlackBerry

To me that suggests the iphone is 94.4% reliable and the blackberry is 88.8% reliable. That's just me, though.

Re:Twice as reliable?

[mblase]

The malfunction rate for iPhones after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for the BlackBerry
To me that suggests the iphone is 94.4% reliable and the blackberry is 88.8% reliable. That's just me, though.

That makes sense if you're a reseller or insurer, and you're interested in how many iPhones or Blackberrys will be sent back for replacement.

However, the consumer who only owns one such device at a time isn't interested in that probability. He's interested in the probability of this individual unit failing tomorrow. From that point of view, the iPhone is twice as likely to not-fail on any given day -- making it, to him, twice as reliable.

Re:Who protects a Blackberry?

[oGMo]

I'm not surprised that iPhones fail less. People take far better care of them.

No kidding. My blackberry gets near constant use all day. In and out of the holster, keyboard pounded on. I've spent 6 straight hours (leashed to a power outlet) doing emergency work over SSH on one. Dropped it repeatedly. Had it on and awake for months of uptime. And you know what? It works just as well as it did the day I got it.

If iPhones have a better fail rate than Blackberries, my guess is because people simply use them less.

Obvious reasoning

[ninjapiratemonkey]

If you stop and think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the blackberries /fail/ much more than iPhones.
The reason is because the blackberry is treated as a tool, more likely to be thrown around, and while it can probably handle being thrown around much better than an iPhone, but it'll break eventually. People who get an iPhone will carry it around in their little plastic cases, polishing it with a cloth after every conversation, and protect it with their life.
Also, the lack of mechanical parts (ie buttons) will make it fail slightly less...

Re:Obvious reasoning

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

If you stop and think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the blackberries /fail/ much more than iPhones. The reason is because the blackberry is treated as a tool, more likely to be thrown around...

Unless, of course, you RTFA in which case you see iPhones fail more often due to accidental damage, but still have significantly lower failure rates overall.

Also, the lack of mechanical parts (ie buttons) will make it fail slightly less...

Yup and that probably accounts for that one of the eight categories where the BB lost.

Speaking as an iPhone user...

[nick_davison]

I'm so completely used to random crashes to the main screen, random complete lockdowns, random freezes, dropped calls, you name it... that it'd have to take something pretty remarkable before I even realized it was a fault I could make a warranty claim over as opposed to just "buggy as usual" functioning.

Looking at the typical blackberry users who regard it as a critical piece of their god given right and duty to answer emails even when on the can... I'd imagine they're vastly less tolerant than iPhone users.

Most iPhone users I know, who haven't previously used Blackberries, are pretty happy with their iPhones. Just about every former Blackberry user I know who converted to an iPhone hates the thing's unreliability and wants to go back.

In short: Relying on reported failures doesn't always tell you which device is more reliable. It can just be an indicator of which user group is more tolerant.

Re:I call BS on this one

[randyest]

Hmm, we have a report with actual data and methodology given, but some bloke on /. calls "BS" and says "trust me" as his evidence that the data are wrong.

Yeah, it's a close one, but I'm going to go with the study in TFA.