Never, ever had a broken cable since having an iPhone or any other devices. Bearing in mind, I've had every single iPhone.
Just don't treat it like ****, bend it when taking it out and all that. Just be gentle with it and it's fine.
rather than spending $20+ on USB cables...
just buy the Lightning to Micro USB adaptor..
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-micro-usb-adapter
it's $20 but... it'll never break..
you can buy TONS of generic Micro USB Cables for cheap.. they're a lot stronger than Apple cables..
Good luck guys
i had one break on me recently and quit working. I am very careful with everything i own but these cables are crap. I use my phone in my car for music and my phone sits in the cup holder that sits up above where the usb cable is plugged in. Bc it's not a straight across connection the cable bends while the phone sits in the cup holder. Has nothing to do with handling the cable. Any kind of regular use outside of a straight across connection will break these cables. My wifes phone is starting to have the same problem in her car.
When I was at the apple store this weekend i took the cable with me. They wanted to make me wait 30-60 minutes for a genius to look at it and would not just replace the cable right then and there.
Solution:
Stop putting the phone in a position where the end of the cable has to bend to work properly.
This isn't difficult. Bending the ends of cables causes fraying/damage. You should know this.
maybe some of you aren't being careful around them? stepping on them, bending/pinching them etc.
up until September I used the same 30pin that I got with the ipod 2g when I bought it new 4 years ago
hence rendering your point moot.
Never had a problem with mine, still using the same one since iPhone 5 launch day, yet all these people with tatty looking cables moan they break often.