The iPhone 4 is proving to be the lemon in Apple's basket. According to research conducted in Australia, the iPhone 4 is much more prone to cracked screens and accidental damage than their predecessors.

The research by SquareTrade Warranties the phones are 82 per cent more likely to crack compared with the single screen of the iPhone 3. The outfit  analysed its warranty claims for more than 20,000 iPhone 4s and found that owners also reported 68 per cent more accidental damage than for the iPhone 3s. An estimated 15.5 per cent of iPhone 4 owners had an accident within months of buying their phone.

The problem appears to be the aluminosilicate glass which seems to crack as least as often as the old glass. However unlike the old glass, it is on the back too so there is now twice as much surface area to break.

The report said that accident rates may be even higher than what is shown because many iPhone users do not report minor scratches or cracks. Often they pretend they are not there because the little voice in their head tells them that they have bought a perfect phone.

When problems like cracks are reported on news sites, fanboys rush to claim that they have never had a problem. However 80 per cent is a fairly high figure, so either they are sitting on a phone which has more faults than San Francisco and more cracked than a David Icke conspiracy theory.

Apple was forced to give away free rubber bumper sleeves not long after the new model was released because of reception problems when it was gripped in a certain way.