I've seen an iPhone smash to pieces after slipping out of someone's hand and onto the floor below. Apparently it's a common occurrence. The slippery glass of the iPhone makes it more prone to break free from your grip and bungee straight to the concrete without a rope.
A study by third-party warranty company SquareTrade tracked 50,000 different phones over one year to analyze their accident rates (how often customers reported drops or spills, as well as their non-accident malfunction rates.)
The iPhone 4 had the highest accident rate of 13.8 percent, but a low non-accident malfunction rate of 2.1 percent, according to SquareTrade, making the iPhone 4 the most reliable phone over a year as long as you don't drop it.
Whereas BlackBerry smartphones had a 6.7-percent accident rate and a 6.3-percent malfunction rate, suggesting they're the least reliable because they're more likely to fail on their own even if they're not dropped.
90 percent of the iPhone 4's failures were due to accidental damage making the iPhone 4 the most fragile handset compared to the other phones tested.
Motorola and HTC phones were almost as accident-prone as the iPhone 4, both with an accident rate of 12.2 percent.
It seems the more glass, the more fragility. Makes sense really doesn't it.
"The bigger issue for consumers is the vulnerability of phones to accidental damage, especially as the market evolves more and more to include large glass displays," SquareTrade said.
So there you have it. Moral of the story? get phone insurance.
Source: wired