iPhone at 10: How a Decade of Dependency Leads to Damage, Obviously

Reading Time: 2 minutes

There aren’t many things we can’t (and don’t) do without our smartphones.

We use our smartphones to get around town, order food, pay bills, and even identify edible plants when foraging. Yes, people forage and thanks to smartphone apps they are less likely to eat something deadly. All this is in addition to messaging, face-timing, snap chatting, and calling people of course.

Accidents are bound to happen – fumbles, drops, spills – it’s all very common when a device is constantly in use (I myself broke an ankle texting and walking). In fact, of the 49% of iPhone owners who’ve damaged an iPhone, 66% reported that they cracked their screen while multitasking.

Whether Apple lovers were on vacation, playing sports, or snapping a photo, in the last 10 years, almost half of iPhone users have spent 14 billion replacing and repairing their hardware. That’s a whole lot of damage for us busy people.

Which iPhones were the most likely to get damaged? People who owned the 5C were two times more likely to end up with crushed phones. And since anything pre-6 wasn’t water resistant, the 5s was 49% more likely to kick the bucket due to water damage (or a Starbucks fail).

As for riskiest individuals? Skydivers. Yep – 69% of those most likely to damage their iPhones were skydivers. We bet they have a thirst for risky behavior!

Other than the adventurous type, people who used social media for four or more hours (guilty!) and individuals who take public transit (hey, it’s rush hour and crammed) were also reported to break their phones.

When you think about everything we do with our smartphones are you surprised by the results or shocked that they aren’t higher?

For more, check out SquareTrade’s Decade of Damage Report.

SaveSave