The smartphone market is worth a whopping $240 billion at the global level. This figure was made public during the trial between Apple and Samsung over patent infringements, but another market that has never garnered much attention is the smartphone repair market. Users spend exorbitant amounts of money on phone contracts, but also spend almost as much on repairs because phones have increasingly become more fragile in the last four to five years.
Studies have shown the same and one of the more surprising statistics to have emerged is that Apple has raked in $5.9 billion in repairs since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007. The high costs along with the large number of users who damage their phones are responsible for this; last year 30% of iPhone owners damaged their devices.
The data comes from a survey conducted by SquareTrade, one of the leading consumer electronics protection plan providers, who surveyed more than 2000 iPhone owners. Results indicate that the most common way of damaging an iPhone is by dropping it and the next is by dropping something on it, especially liquids. 5% of users have put their phone in the washing machine and the funny statistic here is that 9% have dropped it in a toilet. This is rather amusing but it seems plausible when one considers the number of people talking on their phones in restrooms. Water, soda, beer, wine, tea and coffee are the most common liquids to be spilled on the devices.
In a lot of cases, iPhone owners resort to keeping a damaged device because of high repair costs or because they are not eligible for replacement owing to contracts with network providers. Usually, iPhones are replaced at a reduced price but some contracts do not permit it. 11% of owners keep phones with a broken screen while 6% have their device taped up and a whopping 17% of owners have damaged their phone more than two times. A lot of the users who damage their devices are under 35 years of age and many do not have insurance for the phones.
The fact that people are careless with phones is possibly because a phone is an essential part of everyone’s day and people tend to overlook it; it is on your bed, in your car etc. The increasing repair costs seem to have gotten to customers who are now looking for insurance from network providers which entitle owners to a repaired or refurbished device if the one they have is broken.
