In the olden days the big battle was Mac or PC now it seems like the tech culture wars are all about the iPhone versus the Blackberry. Todays volley in the never ending battle? The iPhone fails much less than the Blackberry. We’re not talking just a little less but around half as much. That’s according to a study by SquareTrade which concluded that the iPhone failed at a rate of 5.6% and the Balckberry failed at a rate of 11.2%. Both numbers were better than the Treo which clocked in with a cool 16.2% failure rate which may be why no one seems to want a Treo.

Now you want to know why does the iPhone go bad at even a 1 in 20 rate? The answer is your bumble prone fingers. Yep, the most likely cause of iPhone failure is accident. Dropping the thing, seeing how far it will skip across the glass like surface of the pond outside your cabin door, the all over beer bath etc. So if you buy a great case you shouldn’t have much trouble.

How does SquareTrade get this data? SquareTrade sells extended warranties for the iPhone and other cell phones. (a plan for you iPhone costs $120-$144) and bases the numbers on how many times they payout. Since Apple has been relatively lax when iPhone complaints come in and since you can actually take the iPhone to an Apple store to get it fixed the numbers are probably skewed in the iPhone’s favor. Still, SquareTrade doesn’t care about any of the reasons, the company is only interested in how many times it is necessary to pay for a new phone and the iPhone is winning that battle.

I am oddly tempted to sign up for the plan, since it covers drops and so forth I could finally ditch that case….

via:MobileCrunch