With an admittedly small sample size, I’m seeing a lot more broken or spider-webbed iPhone 4 screens than I ever saw with the original iPhone or iPhone 3G/3GS. I believe this is due to the change in the form factor that raises the glass on the front and back of the iPhone 4 so that it protrudes beyond the phone’s metal rim/antenna.
This is a change over the iPhone 3G/3GS which had a plastic/metal edge that wrapped the glass screen.
The original iPhone had an even larger corner area between the edge of the device and the glass.
I believe that the design differences are likely a large contributing factor to increased screen breakage in the iPhone 4. When dropped, an original iPhone or iPhone 3G/3GS that lands on its corner would land on metal or plastic. When an iPhone 4 is dropped and lands on its corner, there is a good chance that the glass is impacted before the metal rim/antenna.
I’d love to see actual stats on this, I’m curious if my small sample size is actually representative.
Pff, im the one never broken a screen yet, not of my iphone, iphone 3g and now my iphone4 still in one piece. lets pray..
I think they (Apple) do this purposely for more money. If you continue to break the phone (glass) then you have to continuously purchase a new one.
Let’s not forget how they initially was going to make people pay for that rubber protection to help the phone work until the media grabbed hold of that and said it should be free.