A Broken System: is there any hope for our smartphone screens?

Brandon B Werner
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read

Remember in high school, when they gave you a sack of flour with an egg in it to simulate having a baby and if it broke, you failed? Do they still do this assignment? Because we are now living it, everyday.

In my decade and seven models of iPhone ownership, I’ve never once broken a screen. If you know me, you know I’m on my iPhone near 24/7 and although I baby them (would you like to see my case drawer?), things happen. I’ve had an iPhone fall down flights of stairs, one once shot out of my hand and skid across an entire New York street, hitting the curb on the other side… barely scratched.

All of this changed with the iPhone 7 Plus. Let’s get the stats out of the way. I just broke my iPhone 7 Plus screen for the third time since I got it. Being on the official Apple upgrade plan, the first two times were covered under AppleCare for a reasonable $30. Both of these times, I just sat down in a chair and the suicidal phone slid out of my pocket, at most a three-foot drop.

Upon the third drop, this one while pulling the phone from my pocket from standing (how dare I?), the phone fell a fatal 3 feet, leaving the screen massacred.

So I returned again to the Genius Bar and this time was alerted by the emotionless Genius, that it would be $167 for a third screen replacement and because I was basically leasing the device, I had to pay it if I ever wanted to upgrade. So I had to. As I was already paying $40 a month and had paid $60 in screens, considering I did upgrade this year, that was still well under buying the phone in full in the first place — also the phone was virtually unusable.

As I sat there waiting for the Genius to fill out the paperwork, I looked and listened around me at the crowded Apple Store. It seemed the vast majority of people were being given similar news, in front of a shattered iPhone and of the handful of people just at my table, all of us were using a case. What percentage of us were here for this problem?

I turned to the Genius and asked, “So, I’m being charged, what did I do wrong? How can I prevent this again?” Not only was I using a case, I was using Apple’s own $50! piece of silicon.

He then started to explain to me how he didn’t like the Apple cases, and pulled up Amazon on his phone to show me third-party Spigen ones along with one of those grip loops. Part of what I love about Apple is how the geniuses are very up front, but this just seemed surreal.

Which brings me to cases. Even though I usually have a case on, I am a firm believer that Apple’s designers want us to use our phones without one (Samsung doesn’t have designers, they have photo-copiers). Most of their marketing shows the beautiful monolithic slabs as bare as the Coppertone baby. But Apple sells cases themselves, lots of them and it’s fine if that is the solution to the problem. We all get to customize our phones a little and if someone wants to use an Otterbox, god bless them. But it’s obviously not a solution. I’ve read over 25% of all smartphone users have broken their screen, but if you look around the New York subway at all the people swiping their candy gems through cracks, I would say that stat is much higher.

So, In my mind, this means that officially Apple has no advice on this problem. And trust me, I’ve looked at the other companies. If you have an Android device, unless you get a similar third-party protection plan from your carrier, the prices are identical, except you don’t have a physical store with day-of repair. You can tell me that you can go to that shady place in the mall for $50 or buy a kit on Amazon and do it yourself for $30, but those will break your warranty and as leasing becomes more and more common, those become outright impossibilities.

Buy the phone in full or get a cheapo used iPhone or Android? No. If you do the math, ultimately, that’s more expensive.

So we are locked into this vicious cycle with smartphone companies making beautiful leaps in technology to give us thinner phones more powerful than most modern laptops, but if you let them fall even the height of a garden gnome, you are out another $30–170 dollars. If you think it’s going to get any better, think again, with the rise of wireless charging, Samsung has already switched back to glass on the front and back and all signs point to Apple doing the same with their next iteration.

So this is the cycle we are in now. Our phones are quickly catching up to be the new required uncontrolled complicated expense, joining our cars and our healthcare. I could say I’m putting my foot down about buying a new smartphone, say I’ve discovered how wonderful nature and talking to real live humans is, and go off the grid making artisan troll dolls in the woods of Saskatchewan, but that’s not me and there’s too many dogs wearing funny hats on instagram.

)

Brandon B Werner
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade