SquareTrade set off an ambitious study to compare netbooks and laptops failure rates of their customers. SquareTrade provides warranties on electronics as an aftermarket sale, so when something fails, they should know, right? Their study shows Asus and Toshiba tops the list in reliability but just how reliable are these devices? The study performed by more »

Surveys like this are always very interesting as they show the real truths behind the reliability of products, not just the output of the company’s marketing department. In this case, SquareTrade, a research group, have taken it open themselves to tackle smart phones and to see their reliability (or lack thereof, as the case may be) over the first year of purchase. And what better to use than 15,000 handsets consisting of BlackBerrys, iPhones and Treos.

As my not-so-inconspicuous title suggests, the Treo performed poorly, in fact, surprisingly poorly! After one year 5.6% of all iPhones malfunctioned, followed by a sizable jump to 12% for the BlackBerry and a massive 16% of Treos. This is incredibly worrying if you have just a bought a Treo, but comforting if you have selected the iPhone!

Read the full details after the break.