iPhone 4 More Prone to Accidental Damage Than 3GS

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Well duh. Thanks to Apple Consumer Electronics bumbling - to not drop calls you have to hold the phone in an unnatural way.
 
Avatar74 said:
It's important to note that correlation doesn't imply causation.

Also, greater accidents doesn't imply greater design flaws. The data here is only concerning accidental damage. However, it doesn't and cannot isolate the causes of accidental damage. In other words, we can't tell from this data if the design is contributing to increased incidence of accidental damage, or if greater carelessness is contributing, or if it's just statistical creep in the fact that as the iPhone audience becomes even broader, people who previously never owned a smartphone and didn't think to take care of one are experiencing accidental damage at a higher frequency due to greater likelihood of carelessness.

These are all separate metrics that need to be isolated out, and weighed against actual field tests assessing the likelihood of damage in identical conditions.

To wit: I have damaged four iPhones prior to the iPhone 4. I have not damaged the iPhone 4 once. After damaging four phones, I'm much more careful with this one. Even so, I've definitely dropped it a few times and not seen the screen shatter yet.
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It is irrelevant. A good industrial design should have taken into consideration all the contributing factors.
 
Remember that time?

When Steve Jobs made the Apple Stores take out all the screen protectors? 'Cause the glass just couldn't be scratched?!

Still makes me laugh every time I think about it (and every time I look at the few small scratches on my iphone4).
 
crackbookpro said:
Apple has a cult now! Why would you buy a phone that has Glass all around the outside hardware? You are either a tech freak, a child, rich enough to not care, or just plain stupid.
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You forgot to mention, eccentric, aesthetically driven, AA member or a hot chic.
 
Everyone seems to be ignoring the end of the article where it points out that TOTAL failure rate of iPhone 4 is the same as iPhone 3GS and LOWER than competing phones.
 
At the risk of jinxing myself

I'd like to point out that i've been operating a 3GS since it was first released last june/july and have only experienced a few minor scratches on the outside of the glass bezel and not over the screen itself and all this time without ever having a a case (knock on wood).

To date, i've actually had 5 iphone/ipod/ipod touch devices and have never had a case and have only broken one in that time (5th gen ipod).

Why have i had such good fortune? Luck, maybe. Or perhaps i just take care of my valuables. Sure i may fling it on the bed at times like i do my 2,000 camera, but when it get's right down to it, during everyday usage i've got a good grasp on that thing, because that's my money in my hands. Just like when i'm in the pit at a concert trying to catch pictures of a band: i dare you to try and wrench my camera from my hands. aint gonna happen.
 
Laird Knox said:
I don't know about breaking the glass but on the original iPhone I had a rubber case. Grit collected between the phone and cover. There were scratches and gouges all over the back of the phone and even a couple of good dings from a piece of sand.
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It's ironic these "protective" cases sometimes do more damage themselves than if you left the device "unprotected."

The most damage I had to my 3GS was from the stupid Clarifi case from Griffin. I liked that the slider protected the camera lens. Then I discovered the slider was scratching a nice groove into the back of my phone. :mad:

Cynicalone said:
The back does scratch easily. I noticed this early on, I haven't used a case since the original iPhone. I carried my 3G and 3GS without a case and they never scratched like the 4. Tiny little scratches all over the back even when carried exactly like it's predecessors.
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Hmm, my experience has been the opposite. My front and back glass still look great. Microscopic scratching that can be seen at exactly the right angle and right lighting, but nothing as obvious as the scratching I'd see with the plastic back.

AAPLaday said:
Is the back of the iPhone 4 slippy?
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Definitely. Mine has slipped off the sofa many times, the bed, and out of my pajamas pocket while sitting in my desk chair. To my dismay, the phone landed hard on the chair base rather than the softer plastic floor pad. To my relief the glass did not crack on either side. Just a small scratch in the stainless steel surround.
 
Dropped it twice on concrete

The very first day I got my iP4, I was getting out of my car and the phone slid out of my pocket and it slammed flat, screen facing down onto smooth concrete. I was like holy *****! I checked for cracks or scratches on both sides and everthing was fine.

A few weeks ago, I got off from work and pulled the phone it out of my pocket and it slipped from my hand and tumbled a few feet on the rough ashpalt. I was like OMG!, thinking it totally shattered the screen but to my surprise it did not. It was still clear of scratches. I had the bumper case and a front screen protector at that time. The corners of the bumper was the only one that had dents in them.

I don't want to drop this for the third time as it might shatter for real. I blame it on my excessive sweaty hands.

I've done this as well on my iPad having to hold it one handedly at the bottom corner and tapping at the top right corner as my sweaty hands creating a slippery surface on the smooth aluminum chasis the it slipped, flipped and SLAMMED:eek: onto ceramic tiles facing down. Screen was still scratch free. :)
 
chrono1081 said:
I'm sorry but this whole thing is complete crap.

Don't drop your phone! Its not Apples fault someone dropped their phone and it broke.

Thats like saying its a drinking glass companies fault because people at home are dropping their glasses on the floor and the glasses break.
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Apparently some people do not get it. Why do you compare a phone to a glass? How about a hammer? What if Apple made a hammer out of glass? Would you still insist it was not Apple's fault that the hammer broke the first time it got used? Phones do get dropped. That's the fact of life well understood by all other phone manufacturers out there. Have you ever heard of broken Droid X back? I did not think so. Because it was designed with specific purpose in mind. Same can be said about iPhone, it's just the purpose is different - brainwash and sell, sell , sell.
 
while I've

nemaslov said:
Think I'll just hold on to my 3GS till next years 5.
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decided to keep my iPhone 3GS longer than expected, I certainly hope Apple rethinks the glass front and back for the phone design (as they rethought the failed iPod shuffle).

The glass design is a big no for me.

I just hope anyone that has problems gets that completely fixed. BTW this and the antenna, I hope Apple goes back to the drawing board.
 
fifthworld said:
It is irrelevant. A good industrial design should have taken into consideration all the contributing factors.
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How do you design a phone to be impervious to every stupid thing an irresponsible person will do to it? The phone functions within normal operational tolerances as it's intended to, and it's pretty highly resistant to shattering. I've accidentally knocked the thing off countertops, etc. and had it go flying... That's happened to my glasses, too. I don't go screaming at Zeiss or Younger or Bausch and Lomb every time I look down at the floor and fail to hold my glasses so they don't slide off my face.

Be accountable to your own stupidity and have a sense of proportion. It's not an M1 Abrams tank, nor is it claimed to be. If you want something shatterproof, I have a Rolex GMT Master II. It's lasted me 15 years, and I got it partly because I wanted a relatively indestructible watch because I'm a clutz.

However, it also costs about $9000 for the current model. The face, scratchproof and extremely impact resistant, is made of transparent sapphire instead of glass, and costs about $500 by itself. You get what you pay for.
 
Avatar74 said:
How do you design a phone to be impervious to every stupid thing an irresponsible person will do to it? The phone functions as it's intended to, and it's pretty highly resistant to shattering. I've accidentally knocked the thing off countertops, etc. and had it go flying... That's happened to my glasses, etc.

Be accountable to your own stupidity and have a sense of proportion. It's not an M1 Abrams tank, nor is it claimed to be. If you want something shatterproof, I have a Rolex GMT Master II. It's lasted me 15 years, and I got it partly because I wanted a relatively indestructible watch because I'm a clutz.

However, it also costs about $9000 for the current model. The face is made of transparent sapphire instead of glass, and costs about $500 by itself. You get what you pay for.
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Irresponsible person? Really? And about "how do you design the phone"... Somehow every other phone manufacturer got it right. They decided not to use all-glass case. Was it really that difficult?
 
not so fast

What the graph doesn't show is the rate of growth and market share of iPhone 4 vs. 3GS. iPhone 4 has been selling much faster to much more people in many more new places. The more people have it the more might drop it. What increased is the number of people, not fragility of iPhone.
 
Well, a device with 2 sides of glass is obviously will be more prone to cracks than the one with 1 side of glass by statistic alone.
 
I take Consumer Reports is needing hits on its website again. "Hey, look, they busted our garage quality antenna testing, lets make more noise again!"
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Anything that is in your hands that much has a high chance of being dropped. Apple put something that is brittle on the phone. Bad choose.
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I've dropped my phone from 3 feet onto a marble floor with no sign of damage.

So clearly it's not brittle. I can say "Apple put cinnamon in the phone" but that doesn't make it true.

If there are people out there subjecting their phones to more force than that, well, I'm sure it's bound to happen but at some point you have to be realistic. Not everyone's accident is going to be 'saveable.'

(By comparison I DID crack the plastic back of my 3G once. So surveys don't prove what will happen to an individual. Chance is still the biggest factor.)
 
lilo777 said:
Apparently some people do not get it. Why do you compare a phone to a glass? How about a hammer? What if Apple made a hammer out of glass? Would you still insist it was not Apple's fault that the hammer broke the first time it got used? Phones do get dropped.
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A hammer is designed to pound into things. A phone, much like a glass is designed to be held in your hand, not hurtling toward the concrete ground. A wine glass, much like the iPhone, is a luxury. Sure, people could go around using plastic cups, but they don't look as good. People with fine china take care of their valuables because it means something to them. I don't think any one give a ******* what their hammer looks like.
 
ivladster said:
What the graph doesn't show is the rate of growth and market share of iPhone 4 vs. 3GS. iPhone 4 has been selling much faster to much more people in many more new places. The more people have it the more might drop it. What increased is the number of people, not fragility of iPhone.
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I wonder what else Apple apologists can come up with? Have you read the article? Do you understand the math (at least a little)? The article says: "4.7% of iPhone 4 owners reported an accident to SquareTrade in the first 4 months of ownership, almost 70% higher than iPhone 3gs owners, 2.8% of whom had an accident over the same time period." It's all in percentages (of the actual number of users) which automatically takes into account the increased (or decreased) number of phones. What it say is that out of 100 iPhone 4 users, on average, 4.7 of them will have an accident. Out of 100 iPhone 3GS users, only 2.8 owners will have a problem. That's a huge difference. iPhone 4 is 68% more likely to get damaged. Absolute failure on part of Apple's design team.
 
ivladster said:
What the graph doesn't show is the rate of growth and market share of iPhone 4 vs. 3GS. iPhone 4 has been selling much faster to much more people in many more new places. The more people have it the more might drop it. What increased is the number of people, not fragility of iPhone.
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Oh really? Drop our iphone 4, 3G, 3GS and 3G and see which ones glass breaks first
 
LagunaSol said:
WP7 phones with glass screens can also break if dropped. Of course there won't be a million YouTube videos and blog posts about WP7 phones with cracked screens like there are with iPhones. Not much press coverage of Android phones with broken glass screens either (though glass screens on Android phones can also shatter).

As always, Apple gets all the scrutiny.
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Someone else pointed out a flaw in the iPhone that GREATLY increase the chance of the glass cracking. That is the top edge of the glass is exposed about the band around the outside of the phone. So landing on a surface chances are pretty high that the glass will hit first and if on an edge that can crack the glass.

Now on most phone with glass the outside edge of the phone is about the glass so it is impossible for the glass to hit first when falling.

This means less of a chance of it cracking.
 
I have had each iPhone since it came out.
I have broken 0% of my iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS.
I have broken 100% of my iPhone 4.
 
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