In “The Reign of the Fragile Smartphone to End”, the New Zealand website Stuff ponders why our pricey smartphones aren’t sturdier. Jenneth Orantia brings up an interesting point about smartphones: the more powerful they are, the more fragile they become. In other words, more brains, less brawn.
It’s interesting how a cottage industry has sprung up to protect these fragile creatures. There is now a billion-dollar insurance industry catering specifically to people who have smashed their iPhone’s touchscreen or dropped their Samsung S4′s in water. No wonder Sony went ahead and released its waterproof Xperia Z android phone.
We’re so reliant on these gadgets that there’s now a phobia of losing or damaging them, nomophobia, which literally means no-mobile-phone phobia. After all, who wouldn’t be terrified at the prospect of replacing their shiny new phone after it takes a tumble down a flight of stairs or gets stolen in a heartbeat?
The same goes for tablets. With the rise of touch devices, large sheets of glass are now the standard user interfaces. And while most touchscreens are made with Corning’s reinforced Gorilla Glass, they’re far from unbreakable.
To protect their phones or tablets, people buy cases to prevent chips or cracks after a fall. Others buy a screen protector to prevent their gadgets from scratches. However, cases obscure the sexiness of our phones, while screen protectors can make viewing angles worse.
In the case of an iPhone with a cracked screen, replacing it at an Apple store will cost you $249 dollars—half the price of a new unit. For many, their only salvation is through stand-alone phone repair shops. Scorpion Computers is one such shop that offers more affordable cell phone repair in Philadelpia.
Shops like Scorpion Computers offer repair services that cost only a fraction of what you might pay a smartphone brand’s exclusive service center. Consumers can also look to these outlets for iPad repair in Philadelphia.
Apple recently refreshed it smartphone line in the form of the iPhone 5s and 5c. There’s no word yet on their durability, but there probably won’t be a shortage of cracked, chipped or soaked phones in this generation.
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