(Chart courtesy of MacRumors)

Last month, we brought it to you about a study performed by warranty company SquareTrade that showed a higher accidental rate for the iPhone 4 versus the iPhone 3GS.  Granted it would be somewhat expected given the glass front and back.  But believe it or not, a new study out by the company today showed that the iPhone 4 is actually the most reliable smart phone in terms of non-accident malfunctions, according to MacRumors.

Just the same though, it still manages to experience the highest accident rates among the devices that were studied, as evidenced by the data above.

The study covered 50,000 smartphones that were a part of SquareTrade's warranty program.

According to the report:

Apple emerged as the most reliable manufacturer, with Motorola not far behind.  We project fewer than 2.5% of iPhone and Motorola owners will report a malfunction in the first 12 months of use, with iPhone 4s leading the pack.  HTC came next with a one-year malfunction rate of 3.7%, and BlackBerry's 6.3% was the highest of the four manufacturers examined.  All other smart phones taken together fared the worst, with 6.7% reporting a malfunction.

Despite being reliable, there's still that whole accident chestnut to deal with though:

As reported in our previous study on the iPhone 4 glass, the early iPhone 4 data shows a much higher accident rate compared to its predecessor.  However, when we compare it to the Android manufacturers, it is higher, but not by much.  We expect 13.8% of iPhone 4 owners to report an accident within a year, compared to 12.2% for both Motorola and HTC.

So with that, the iPhone is certainly a leader in terms of reliability, but its glass casing continues to be its sore spot of sorts, especially hot on the heels of the earlier "Glassgate" report today!

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