The Accident Prone iPhone 4?

Four months after the iPhone 4 was release, SquareTrade has released a report today claiming that the hotly coveted phone has a higher accident claim rate than it’s predecessor, the iPhone 3Gs. Significantly higher. In fact, 4.7% of their iPhone 4 owning customers submitted an accidental claim in the first four months compared to 2.8% of 3Gs customers in the same time frame. The numbers are based on a similar sized data set (roughly 20,000 warranty owners).

Additionally, out of all those iPhone 4 warranty repairs, 82% were for a cracked screen. Again, this is higher than the 3Gs but not as much as one would expect (76%) given the early and continuing reports of busted glass on the phone. According to SquareTrade, the report “doesn’t identify which broken screens resulted from dirt trapped behind a slide case,” and “at least a quarter of the broken glass claims involved the back screen.”

The verdict from SquareTrade? The iPhone 4 is more prone to damage than the previous model. But is this due to bad design or clumsy owners?

It’s obvious that when so much of the surface of a phone is glass, there’s bound to be some accidents resulting in more severe damage than with metals or plastic. However, could it be that with smart-phones being in the paws of so much more people, that we’re becoming a little complacent and not being mindful of our devices? Or, if this is a matter of poor design, why are so many people buying into it? Does the style outweigh the seemingly unpractical form-factor of a mostly glass phone?

Some people will argue that you simply need to take care of your phone, while others question the validity of claims that both the front and back glass panes were breaking from a mere 1 foot drop. There’s also the argument that one should simply protect their phone with a case while others wonder, why bother getting such a stylish phone only to hide it?

What do you think? Is the almost-all-glass concept bad design? Have you suffered the unfortunate scenario of breaking the front and/or back of your iPhone 4?

[AppleInsider]