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.

I think Microsoft is full of tricks. It introduced Xbox 360 in the USA and Canada with just a 90-day warranty, when all other game console manufacturers were offering 1-year warranty as standard. Consumers then found out Xbox 360 often fails to function one way or another after 90 days, forcing them to fork out more »