Slashdot Mirror
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.
People who live in glass houses... :-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Note the complete statistical fail: the iPhone 4 has *two* glass screens - that means that all the fucktards that used to just scuff the hell out of the metal back are now dropping and breaking their back glass.
One also wonders about the validity of numbers from an "accidental damage" insurance service; only people who can't keep gadgets in reasonable shape are likely to buy such a thing...
Probably due to the fact that people slam the phone down 82% more of the time, because of the antenna reception issue.
Just saying..
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
What the fuck do iPhone owners do with their phones? Crack open coconuts with them? I've been using cellular phones since they came in bags and ran off nicads and lead-acid batteries, and I have never managed to break a screen. I mean, sure, cell phones are portable electronics and thus delicate to a degree, but exercise a modicum of care and they should last a while.
I think iPhone owners are one or more of the following: a. careless individuals who regularly drop their phones onto concrete, b. people who frequently beat on their phones out of frustration with Market policies and/or AT&T's network, or c. suckers that got sold an mechanically inferior product.
There are other pigeonholes, but that'll get you started.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
... so says faux Steve
86% more glass damage given 100% more glass.
So, perhaps this is user error - for not putting an adequate case on 'em. The charts don't show whether or not the user has put a transparent adhesive screen protector on, AND uses a good case.
Two things that I will always do for any smart phone.
Another friend of mine just never keeps any coins, keys or other sharp objects in the same pocket. He's had no problems either.
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
Apple is teh evilz incrnate, no?
I just read an article that states warranty companies are 82% more likely to write biased reviews about products they sell warranties for. Coincidence? Nah, it couldn't be.
Unless the glass is breaking all by itself, I'm going to go with "people who spent too much money on a phone don't know how to take proper care of them."
Fact is, I spent like $100 (and renewed my contract with tmobile) to get a samsung vibrant. The first thing I did was slap a protective case around it and put on a screen protector. Following that, a visit to eBay showed me some nicer things to protect the phone and I also got one of those belt holders for the phone. Why?
1. I spend what I consider to be a lot of money for a phone.
2. Things I spend money on, I try to take care of
3. Keeping a phone in your pocket will cause problems starting with dust and ending with who knows what else
4. In spite of all the care I want to give it, things fall, slide off, whatever.
If I had an iPhone (and people who know me know the LOOONG list of reasons why I will never own an iPhone) I would do the same thing to it -- protect the shit out of it. It's frikken expensive and needs to be protected.
People need to get over complaining about how durable something is or isn't and start simply being careful for a change.
The data from the study shows a 42% increase in water damage for the iPhone 4 over the 3GS. From this data we can conclude, with some certainty, that the two bodies of data are fundamentally different and any conclusions drawn on simple differences are only partially caused by differences in the devices themselves.
My Blackberry Pearl came with a nice little leather carry case. The phone even knows if it's in it or not so that it can use different ringer profiles. Fits nice in the pocket and I never pocket dial. One of the best phone designs I've ever had.
http://www.blogcdn.com/mobile.engadget.com/media/2008/03/att-blackberry-pearl-8120-review-pcmag.jpg
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
"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!
The only information re: screen breakage on that page is that 76% of accidents are screen breakage, and that 7.8% of 3GS owners report accidents during their first year.
By my math, that means about 5.9% of screens are breaking on the 3GS.
Glass is really remarkably strong when it comes out of the furnace. The tensile strength is amazing, it can bend enough to absorb some shocks. It's a great material before it gets to the real world.
But, once it does, it immediately develops microcracks in the surface, and each of these could be the beginning of a fracture that goes through the bulk of the glass. So, what to do?
I don't know if they've taken the hint from the semiconductor industry (look up 'strained silicon') but they did a similar thing with glass. By bombarding the surface of the glass with larger atoms, they create significant stress in the surface, so that any microcracks are immediately pushed shut. But, this is only true down to the level that these atoms diffuse into the surface...not far at all!
So, if you create a significant scratch (and this might just be 100 microns) you are through this surface, and have a potentially catastrophic failure waiting to happen.
A screen-protecting film of plastic would be a good investment.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Q. How do I keep my iPhone screen from breaking?
A. Stop throwing your phone at your cat.
Q. What if I don't have a cat?
A. Then stop throwing it at your bf/gf.
Q. What if I don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?
A. Get an iPhone 4.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This research is "sponsored" by an extended warranty company. I'm sure they don't have any interest in showing people their precious new phone is more likely to break.
Is this really news? you're dealing with a device that doesn't have an easily removable battery or even screws to take the cover off. These phones are definitely not meant to last - they're a fashion accessory. When the new one comes out next year the one you have now is supposed to be in rough shape, come the year after and it should be either dead or on it's last legs.
I don't see many iPhone 2G around anymore, presumably most have perished by now. The Nokia 6310(i) on the other hand, we won't see the end of those till the last GSM network closes down and even then people will run their own using OpenBTS just so they can continue using it
Of course the iPhone has two pieces of glass to break instead of one, so, for the careless consumer who has insurance because they want to break the phone and get a new one every few months, this provides twice the opportunity to break the phone.
My orginal iPhone suffered a couple traumatic events, and the back is dented. This may in fact have broken the iPhone 4. Many of us are not used to protecting the back of our devices. Therefore initial breakage is bound to be much more.
From the insurance industry point fo view such numbers are literal gold. Make the phone sound less reliable, more people buy their $99 dollar insurance. Make the phone sound less reliable, and you can charge $99 for a $200 phone, that, according to their own numbers, only have a 8 in one hundred chance of breaking, probably much less if all iPhone owners are included. From a hones person point of view, there is probably the iPhone 4 is probably no more like to break than the other phones, when used carefully. In particular the extrapolation sound like pure and simple markting hyperbole.
Before this I did not realize what squaretrade did, and now that I see this deceptive report, I certainly will do everything I can to not use them. Not to say that some people don't need insurance. But if one didn't need for the old iPhone, one likely does not need it now.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
What if iPhones are simply used more because iPhone is a more mature device with better and/or more services. I know my kids love to play with my wife's iPhone because they can easily find all kinds of uses and apps for it. (Hell will come when the bill does, though.)
Table-ized A.I.
These numbers are being reported by an insurance company whose product is (relatively) expensive, and must be actively sought out by iPhone purchasers. This is likely to be a group self-selecting for increased probability of breaking their phones, so the stats are probably higher than for the iPhone-owning public at large.
I don't even know what this "study" is trying to conclude.
Our data shows that iPhone 4 owners are reporting accidents 68% more frequently than iPhone 3gs owners. 4.7% of iPhone 4 owners reported an accident to SquareTrade in the first 4 months of ownership, almost 70% higher than iPhone 3gs owners, 2.8% of whom had an accident over the same time period.
OK, so what does that data mean? It looks like all the data shows is that, for whatever reason, there are a lot of "accidents" involving iPhone 4s. So, what does that mean? Does that mean people drop them more often? Would that be considered a "design flaw"? Are people dropping them just as often, but this model breaks more easily?
I don't see any conclusions that can be drawn about this device just given the percentage of people who manage to screw it up. Maybe the conclusion to draw is that iPhone 4 owners are more careless or stupid than owners of previous models, makes as much sense as any other conclusion.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
... Is this the same Gorilla Glass that's in my Cowon S9? Because I *sat* on it once (oops) and it broke the AMOLED screen (cry) but not the gorilla glass on top. I've seen the videos of someone attacking it with forks and coins and stuff too. That shit is seriously tough. So did Apple buy the generic brand of it or what? How the hell are people cracking it without destroying the rest of the damn phone?
In particular the toughened stuff is that it is fairly brittle. So yes, it may well be stronger than plastic, but when it fails, it does so in a more catastrophic fashion.
You can see this with knives. Most knives are steel, of course. However with a little research you discover you can buy more advanced, harder knives. Ceramic knives that more or less never go dull. They are the real deal too, I own a couple. You can't believe their sharpness, the hold their edge forever, food washes right off them, etc. Brilliant things. So why then are they not used all over? I mean they are pricey, but not much more than a forged steel knife.
Reason is they are brittle. They are indeed much harder than steel, however they don't flex. So you apply pressure to them and they are unmoving until a certain point, when they shatter. A steel knife can bend and flex a bit, and be just fine. Mean that ultimately, a steel knife is much more resilient. They may lose their edge easier and so on, but they can do tough jobs ceramics can't (ceramic knives are for slicing, not for something lick carving meat on the bone).
Same sort of shit here. A good polycarbonate will scratch easier than a toughened glass, and is less strong, you can flex it just by pushing hard enough. However it has a lot of give. It can take some reasonably hard impacts and survive, whereas the glass will hold strong up to a given point, and then fail badly.
Max strength isn't always the most desirable characteristic. Surviving stresses can be as much about moving with them as resisting them.
"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."
They really were holding it wrong?
They've been very big on form over function for some time now. Doesn't mean their devices aren't functional, it just means that they worry about how they look more than anything else and they don't give much thought to if it interferes with working. For example if you look you discover time capsules have a bad habit of dying early, all around the same time. Further research shows this is because they overheat. They cannot take the heat of the integrated powersupply. Well external power would be perfectly doable, most devices have it. However Apple just had to have the sleek, all in one, unit. A fan was not acceptable either, of course. Thus form took precedence over good design and there were functional problems in the end.
Same shit on the iPhone 4. It isn't like they didn't put function in the device. It is a high end smart phone, no question. However they had to make it pretty, that was requirement #1, and some functionality suffered because of it.
I really dislike that way of doing things. I'm fine with good looking electronics, things shouldn't have to be ugly but function need to be primary. Make sure everything works first and if the design interferes with that, change it. Make shit work first, look good second.
I saw a friend day who had a new iPhone 4 and I noticed his screen was broke... He said he had not had it three days before he broke it and it was gonna cost $200 to fix.... Now I read this and it makes total sense.
People with iPhones are more likely to have social friends, as opposed to people that seek out the most open, developer friendly phone. People with friends are more likely to party and drink. People with developer friendly phones are likely to sit in a padded chair in their home. Drunk people drop phones a lot, even in traffic. Developer people drop phones too, but on couches, tables, and carpeted floors. That is my theory.
You're holding it wrong
Cell phones get abused, simple as that. You have people who would not normally use anything more advanced than a TV remote that have high end smartphones these days. And such people, and not a shot at them just saying, often don't have the mindset of treating high end portable electronics with a bit more care. To them something that you can throw in your purse or pocket should be able to take massive amounts of abuse.
And by in large I would say that modern cell phones do! Phones get dropped, dropped in water, left on the roofs of cars and then the person drives away, abused by family pets, etc. And many keep going right along.
I personally think a full case is best since even under the best care you know your just gonna drop your phone at some point. My BB case cost me all of $10 and it was worth every penny. I'm and oldschool geek so by nature I'm pretty careful with my electronics but I don't ever worry about accidentally dropping my phone.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
what kind of screen protection they are using. If you buy a device like this with no screen protection you get what's coming.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
I am awaiting the announcement of an Apple Special Event on this problem soon.
At the event Mr. Jobs will bash with a hammer the screens of competing cell phones from RIM, Motorola, Sony, Nokia, etc. The results of this vigorous laboratory testing will be presented with a pie-chart to show that the iPhone screen is more resistant to hammer blows as long as you hold the hammer carefully with a finger or two and not grip it with your whole hand.
Oh wait Captain Context, the article only has iPhone stats posted.
Try the index that contains this article and look at the other studies. There's an (admittedly older) article comparing the iPhone with the Blackberry and Treo.
Handheld gadgets with glass panels are fragile. Genius!
Well, Is glass exactly the best option for a device that will be inevitably dropped. I like my iPhone 4 but I immediately bought the case Apple should have design around so I could be more careless with this thing
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Shocking news ... metal covered glass breaks easier than the one surrounded with thick plastic.
Look at the 3G/3GS, and compare it to the first iPhone (on which I saw some broken screens) and the iPhone 4....
I think the new design looks spectacular, still I would 100x prefer my 3GS with the 4's features than the actual 4.
I actually think, that a iPhone 4 with the plastic bumper is still more vulnerable to side impacts than a 3G/GS without a protector.
Just my 2c ...
An other factor : if you have big hands, you can much more easily drop small objects. The 4 felt tiny compared to my in-case (actual brand of the case) covered 3GS. Every time I hold a 3GS without the cover I have the feeling that I am about to drop, it is so slim and shiny/slippery.
My family has 6 cell phones. Four of them do not have an additional warranty. That's because I know these four people will take care of their (iPhone) cell phones. Two of the phones (Motorola Razrs) do have the extra-charge warranty that will let you replace the phone NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS! Those two phones have each been replaced twice for 'accidents'. These supplemental insurance policies tend to be purchased and used by careless people! If you give some people carte blanche to treat their stuff carelessly with no financial penalty, they will.
that I am a PC. :)
teenagers?
I see the iPhone haters are out in force. And by the looks of it, none of them bothered to read through to the end of the report:
"Despite this troubling increase, it's important to take the accident rate into perspective. Overall, the iPhone is still a very well constructed device, with a non-accident malfunction rate much lower than most other consumer electronics.
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."
Anyone with any experience in the cellular world will tell you that iPhones are the made from better quality materials than ALL other phones. Pick one up, it's obvious. Ok it has it's shortfalls, but hey, it's still the best.
Glass breaks, who woulda knew. Really people the dam phone is made of glass,on both sides. Not a very bright idea ya ask me
Jack of all trades,master of none
You're holding it wrong.
what they really need is to switch to gorilla glass that corning makes
See, you're not holding it right.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
You do understand what percentage means, right?
I guess part of the problem is that the new iPhone has two bits fo glass. One for the front and one for the back. .... crack.
To add to that, you take less car of the back, so you put it down on the table and there is a scew you didn't notice
And here comes the apple bitches. What a surprise!
TAKE CARE OF YOUR SHIT. If you treat your phone like a football, you're going to have scratches and cracks. If you put a decent case on it and take care of it, chances are you won't end up destroying it.
Apple has had quality problems all the way back to the original Macintosh. Ask yourself why Apple doesn't offer AppleCare for the iPod Touch? Why are there businesses that make decent revenue off of repairing things like crappy headphone jacks?
Why can't Apple use tempered glass on their iphones?
Ask yourself why Apple doesn't offer AppleCare for the iPod Touch?
I meant to say the iPod Touch 3G.
iPhones are not your run-of-the-mill, totally uncool grandpa phone. They're, like, works of art, dude. If I wanted something that made me look like a dork, I wouldn't be buying an iPhone! Do you think people who buy those French designer vases and then use them for anything besides showing them off should be blamed if they break? I think so! If some "careless individual" uses their French vase to water their dog or something, and then breaks it, it's totally their fault, and I wouldn't expect Michael Angelo or Leonardo di Caprio or any of those other ninja turtle old guys to like being told that their beautiful work of art is an "mechanically inferior product."
The iPhone has had a few problems (antenna, etc) and these weren't covered under the warranty. However, there were many rumors that Apple had fixed it silently, and that when you sent a phone for repair, they were fixing this as well.
As such, you might find that a lot of people were doing this on purpose, to see if they can get a phone, which had the other problems fixed.
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
You can just use a chip or porcelain. Flick it at the glass and watch the fun.
The thing I find most scary about that design is the kooky idea of making the back of device in glass as well as the front. It seems like a total case of over-design, doubling the number of components prone to accidental damage for absolutely no functional reason.
Any handheld device will acquire a few scratches and bumps under normal wear, no matter how carefully you look after it. A case in point: the back of my iPod Classic has lots of scratches, while the front is completely unblemished. That's just from putting it down on the non-slip rubber-lined compartment of my car while I'm driving. I would be fucking pissed off if any of those scratches caused the case to fall apart.
It's called Fruit Ninja
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
coming soon
This way of presenting the statistics seems a bit too sensationalist.
From TFA: "Accident rates up 68%"
Sure sounds serious, no? They could have written: "Accident rates rises 1.9%"
Not that interesting all of a sudden, but it's the same numbers.
Then the source of the title of this post: "iPhone 4 broken screen rate up by 82%"
Reading the fine print reveals that "3.9% of iPhone 4 owners reported a cracked screen within 4 months, as opposed to just 2.1% of iPhone 3gs owners."
From 2.1% to 3.9%. Again not that interesting, but no numbers for a headline.
What would be interesting is how accident rates compare between smarphone makers. This is just massaging numbers to get a headline.
I vote for a probable D) A disproportionate number of iPhones compared to other smart phones are owned by teenagers
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Being an expensive phone means they can afford to use Super Strong Glass
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/super-strong-glass/310678.article
and it's not a joke. It exists.
You just compared _occurrences_ with _amount of damage once something occurs_.
Would you like an apple with that orange?
It is an important feature
Screen or glass?
If the glass breaks 82% more often, then that's really an improvement of 9%, since it's got glass on both sides.
I can attest to one contributor. People not buying a case when they purchase the phone because they're going several weeks unprotected waiting for their free iPhone 4 case from Apple.
grep -iw skynet
Compared to the 3GS, iPhone4 screens are under the load of ~4X as many pixels/cm^2. So an 82% increase in breakage rate means, in reality, the screens are more than TWICE as strong as the previous model! /steve