News November 12, 2008

Blackberry’s fail twice as often as iPhones – though not as often as Palm

Gear Diary Blackberrys fail twice as often as iPhones though not as often as Palm photo

According to a study of over 15,000 Palm, RIM and iPhone devices by Square Trade (link to PDF copy of study) the iPhone was least likely to have a hardware failure. While this may be surprising to some, the iPhone’s first year failure rate according to the study was 5.6% while the Research In Motion BlackBerry devices reached up to 11.9% and Palm topped out at 16.2%. The study primarily focussed on hardware issues didn’t take into account problems fixed by software patches or firmware updates. The most problematic area? Touchpad/Screen/Keypad.

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About Wayne Schulz

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Wayne is a diehard Blackberry user and consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 Accounting Software. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. When not helping them with their homework or pushing the latest school fundraiser off on his co-workers, he is active hiking, Scuba Diving and investigating all manner of technology.

questionfear

Are they including manufacturer’s warranty covered fixes or just Squaretrade claims? One would assume there’s a higher level of claims for all three phones going through the manufacturer/carrier in the last 12 months…since the iPhone has only been out for ~18 months, and there’s always AppleCare, I wonder if the results are skewed. More than likely their iPhone repairs were people who either bought outside of AT&T or who dropped/damaged the phone so it wasn’t covered via manufacturer’s warranty. Blackberries and Treos are more likely to be purchased outside warranty or unlocked and outside carrier insurance since they are more widely available.

Just playing devil’s advocate and dissecting the information.