UPDATED: Added a quote form Vince Tseng, SquareTrade’s VP of marketing.
Following up on our story about Glassgate last week, an iPhone insurance company says the iPhone 4 is significantly more prone to damage than the previous model. But it also found little evidence that Glassgate is a widespread problem.
However, SquareTrade also found that only 25 percent of damage reported was to the glass on the back of the unit.
In other words, the vast majority of broken iPhone 4s had cracked screens, not backs, which doesn’t indicate a widespread Glassgate issue. Apple is reportedly investigating whether particles trapped between slide-on cases and the iPhone 4 can scratch or crack the device’s rear glass panel. The study basically concludes that the iPhone 4 is more prone to damage because it has twice as much glass to break (front and back).
“We haven’t found any conclusive evidence that slide-on cases are causing smashed glass,” said Vince Tseng, SquareTrade’s VP of marketing. “There’s more glass to break and it’s no more durable than the glass on the previous device.”
SquareTrade, one of the largest independent gadget insurance companies, said the data is from more than 20,000 iPhone 4s covered over the last four months.
Here’s the full report: iPhone 4 glass breaking 82% more than iPhone 3gs – four months in
