When Dumb Things Happen To Smart Phones

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We've all heard the horror stories (some of us have lived them); dropping your mobile device in the toilet, running it through the washing machine after it was left in a pants pocket and, of course, letting your dog or children anywhere near it at anytime.

SquareTrade has released a "failure report" on the three most currently popular smart phones (iPhones, Treos and Blackberries).

Surprise, surprise (at least to me); the iPhone came out the hardiest of the three with only a 5.6% failure rate on average within the first 12 months of ownership. Blackberry's failure rate is double that. Treo is triple that for the same time frame. Wow!

Let's look a little closer at the findings:

- One third of all iPhone problems are due to accidents (imagine dropping one in the toilet!). The study concludes that iPhones are more prone to accidents because what reviewers call "sleek in design" is actually slippery to hold in real life.

- Another third of all iPhone failures are due to the touchscreen. Treo, however, actually has more malfunctions related to screen and touchpad problems.

- Across the board, the minimal areas of concern are battery life and hardware accessories like Bluetooth and cameras.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio