iPhone 4 is Most Reliable Smartphone, Study Says

Apple's iPhone is the most reliable smartphone, according to SquareTrade Reasearch's analysis of more than 50,000 such devices.

The study looked at four smartphone makers: Apple, RIM, HTC, and Motorola. It used four months of data for the iPhone 4, which went on sale in June, a year of data for Blackberry, and eight months of data for HTC and Motorola. SquareTrade last analyzed smartphone reliability in November 2008, "when the BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone 3G, and Palm Treo dominated the smartphone market," it said.

While the November 2010 study found that the iPhone is the most trustworthy phone, it also showed Android-based Motorola and HTC devices to be pretty comparable in terms of dependability. Within the first 12 months, 2.1 percent of iPhone 4s were "projected to have a non-accident malfunction." Motorola and HTC have similar malfunction rates with 2.3 percent and 3.7 percent respectively.

The study showed RIM's BlackBerry devices to be less dependable; In the first 12 months, 6.3 percent faltered. However, the study said 75 percent of smartphone collapses were a result of "accidental damage," and BlackBerrys have the lowest percentage of these types of instances (6.7 percent). Nearly one in 10 (9.4 percent) iPhone 4s fell victim to this fate however, the highest rate of any other smartphones.

"There is a good deal of variance in the failure rates of different smartphones," the study said. "The iPhone 4 is the most reliable phone in the study, but also has the highest risk of accidental damage. BlackBerrys had the least risk of accidental damage, and may be the best choice for the clumsiest consumers, but had a relatively high malfunction rate."

The study said that the reported rates reflect across-the-board improvements in hardware that hasn't been around for very long.