Owners of the new iPhone 5 wonder whether coverage will help protect them from high costs.
The iPhone 5’s massive success in its release last week didn’t come as a surprise to anybody, but it has left the owners of these cutting edge devices wondering whether they should purchase cell phone insurance to protect them against the cost of loss, theft, or damage.
Consumers spend billions repairing broken devices and on replacements and deductibles.
In fact, according to the consumer electronics protection plan provider, SquareTrade’s data, since the iPhone first started being sold in 2007, owners have spent $5.9 billion on repairs for the replacement, repair, or cell phone insurance damage deductibles on that brand, alone. Within the last twelve months, 30 percent of users have damaged their iPhone devices in some way. This data was based on a survey of over 2,000 users of iPhone devices.
Cell phone insurance can help these individuals shrink the costs of continuing to talk, text, and download after damage.
According to Ty Shay, the chief marketing officer at SquareTrade, “We were shocked at the numbers.” What’s more, the ways in which the devices were being damaged were also causing many raised brows. Based on the survey, of all the damaged iPhones since 2007, 9 percent were caused by having been dropped into the toilet, primarily after having fallen off a clip-on or out of a pocket.
Another 5 percent of the survey respondents said that the device was accidentally washed in the washing machine with clothing. Liquids are also commonly spilled onto the devices. Cell phone insurance claims support the survey results, which said that 43 percent of liquids spilled on the iPhones was water, 19 percent was soda, 12 percent was wine or beer, and 12 percent was tea or coffee.
The most common way in which iPhones were damaged was from dropping in some way.
According to Shay, many people without cell phone insurance simply resign themselves to keeping the damaged mobile device because it is too expensive to replace these premium smartphones. Eleven percent of the survey participants had cracks in their iPhone screens, 6 percent had tape on their device.
