iPhone twice as reliable as BlackBerry

Apple's iPhone has had half the failure rate of RIM's BlackBerry and a third of the failure rate of Palm's Treo, according to a SquareTrade study.

In the first year of use, Apple's iPhone had a malfunction rate of 5.6 per cent while RIM's BlackBerry hit the double digits with 11.9 per cent. Palm's Treo was even higher, at 16.2 per cent.

SquareTrade estimated a malfunction rate of between nine and 11 per cent for the iPhone, which is not quite two year's old. The BlackBerry's malfunction rate increased to 14.3 per cent after two years, as did the Treo, which rose to 21 per cent.

Of the problems reported for the iPhone, a third were directly related to the touch-screen. The slippery, difficult-to-grip form made the iPhone more accident prone than any other by 33 per cent, and nearly a quarter of all iPhone handsets are projected to fail in the first two years of ownership due to an accident.

The battery life of the iPhone has had less than half of a per cent of users reporting a problem, while around one per cent of all Blackberry and Treo users have reported a battery issue.

IT PRO requested comment on SquareTrade's study from both RIM and Apple, but had not received it at the time of writing.

For more on these phones, check out our reviews of the Apple iPhone 3G, the BlackBerry Bold, and the Palm Treo Pro.