This Techcrunch article is claiming a 40% return rate for Android phones:

However, on the ground, many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers.

This is an incredibly high number, especially considering that the return rate for the iPhone appears to be 1.7%.

Several things bother me about this article:

  • The author links to the source for the iPhone 1.7% number but provides absolutely no source for the main subject of the article. Where exactly does this data come from? A single person? Who happens to know the numbers for multiple manufacturers (emphasis on “multiple”, it’s important for the credibility of the article)? Who is that person? Where did they get this information from?
  • The article is implying that this return rate is for Android, not just a single handset. Seriously, can you imagine that every single Android handset has a return rate of 30%? Really?
  • No single company could come close to surviving such a high return rate, but hinting that every single manufacturer of an Android phone is seeing such a phenomenon? Absurd.
  • Guess where the numbers for the iPhone return rate come from? Well, Apple of course. To be fair, I don’t doubt that this number is probably accurate since I’ve seen nothing but very high satisfaction for the iPhone, but come on, Jason Biggs, show some professionalism: if you’re going to use Apple to support a side of your article, the least you can do is ask Google for their own numbers for Android phones.

Filed as “link bait”.