Manufacturing a device as complex as the Apple iPhone in large quantities entails the statistics of engineering failure. However, the iPhone failure rate appears to be much smaller than the industry standards, and Apple will continue to improve it, according to Business Week on Thursday.

"What’s important about bugs or glitches in any new product, annoying as they may be, is what the manufacturer learns from each individual episode and what’s done about it to ensure that it doesn’t recur," Arik Hesseldalh wrote.

Despite few reported problems, users who do have problems can make a fuss on the Internet, and that gets the news organizations salivating all out of proportion to the problem.

The BW author, with the help of iSuppli, took a close look at just one part of the iPhone, the multi-layer display, which is quite complex. "I don’t know exactly how they were manufactured, but no amount of prying or scraping could get [two of the layers] apart," said Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli.

Despite the iPhone’s complexity, the author’s informal estimate of the failure rate puts the number at something less than 1 percent. Another iSuppli employee, Jagdish Rebello, said that it’s not uncommon to see failure rates of 3 to 4 percent, especially when a product is new.

"What’s important is that the failure rate goes down over time. As products mature, and the understanding of the various pitfalls in the manufacturing process improves, Mr. Rebello said, the failure rate drops in most cases to 1% or less. We don’t know the actual failure rate on the iPhone. Apple isn’t in the habit of releasing such data, mainly because it’s not material to earnings," Mr. Hesseldahl concluded.

That’s the key to understanding Apple’s approach. They look at the overall statistics, not the juicy headlines, and work to learn from their mistakes.