Independent warranty company SquareTrade says the 16 percent Xbox 360 failure rate it reported earlier this month is just a starting point and that the actual figure could be higher.
SquareTrade warranty company announced the results of a report indicating that the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of 16.4 percent. Today, in a post on its buyer's blog, the company released more information about the study, including dates, sample sizes and failure patterns.
SquareTrade said it received 171 claims on a sample group of 1040 Xbox 360 warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31 2007. The company said all the claims were made by non-commercial users (read: not companies like IGN, whose editors are known to take their 360s into the bathtub with them) and did not include accidental damage.
Because of the date range studied, SquareTrade said it was unlikely that any modified 360s -- announced by MS in July to combat overheating problems -- were included in the sample.
Also, because the report only tracked the sample for between six and 10 months after warranty purchase, SquareTrade said the failure rate may be low. If tracking would have continued for 24 to 36 months, the company said "the fail rate is certain to go up."
"Our data shows that failures spike in the third month after warranty purchase but remain fairly steady after that, with only incremental drop-off until the eight month," the SquareTrade Analytics Team wrote on the blog. "This pattern is fairly consistent with all electronics failures."
SquareTrade also said its numbers don't take into account those Xbox 360 owners who bypass it altogether and take their claims directly to Microsoft, which could mean the failure rate is even higher still.
For its study, SquareTrade tracked 27 Xbox 360 Elites, 57 Cores and 956 Premiums. Out of the 171 claims reported (60 percent), 102 were general hardware failures (Red Ring of Death). Of the other 69 claims:
- 18% were disc read errors.
- 13% were video card failures.
- 13% were hard drive freezes.
- 10% were power issues.
- 7% were disc tray malfunctions.
SquareTrade said that, because the above issues are not covered under the extended Microsoft warranty, which only covers RROD, they are the more reliable figures.
source : www.ign.com
SquareTrade warranty company announced the results of a report indicating that the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of 16.4 percent. Today, in a post on its buyer's blog, the company released more information about the study, including dates, sample sizes and failure patterns.
SquareTrade said it received 171 claims on a sample group of 1040 Xbox 360 warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31 2007. The company said all the claims were made by non-commercial users (read: not companies like IGN, whose editors are known to take their 360s into the bathtub with them) and did not include accidental damage.
Because of the date range studied, SquareTrade said it was unlikely that any modified 360s -- announced by MS in July to combat overheating problems -- were included in the sample.
Also, because the report only tracked the sample for between six and 10 months after warranty purchase, SquareTrade said the failure rate may be low. If tracking would have continued for 24 to 36 months, the company said "the fail rate is certain to go up."
"Our data shows that failures spike in the third month after warranty purchase but remain fairly steady after that, with only incremental drop-off until the eight month," the SquareTrade Analytics Team wrote on the blog. "This pattern is fairly consistent with all electronics failures."
SquareTrade also said its numbers don't take into account those Xbox 360 owners who bypass it altogether and take their claims directly to Microsoft, which could mean the failure rate is even higher still.
For its study, SquareTrade tracked 27 Xbox 360 Elites, 57 Cores and 956 Premiums. Out of the 171 claims reported (60 percent), 102 were general hardware failures (Red Ring of Death). Of the other 69 claims:
- 18% were disc read errors.
- 13% were video card failures.
- 13% were hard drive freezes.
- 10% were power issues.
- 7% were disc tray malfunctions.
SquareTrade said that, because the above issues are not covered under the extended Microsoft warranty, which only covers RROD, they are the more reliable figures.
source : www.ign.com
