Allstate Protection Plans, the electronic and home appliance insurance company, has released a report revealing the number of people in the United States who have damaged their phones in 2023, and the figure is astonishing: 78 million Americans have damaged their phones in the past year. However, this number has actually decreased compared to 2020.
Along with the large number of broken phones comes the skyrocketing cost of repairing the most important component of a smartphone, the screen. According to Allstate, while Americans spent around $3.4 billion on phone screen repairs in 2018, this figure has surged to $8.3 billion in 2022. Since smartphones first appeared in the United States, American consumers have spent approximately $149 billion on repairing communication devices.
However, a new report from Allstate suggests that smartphone users are becoming more careful with their devices. Although there are still 78 million Americans who have damaged their phones in 2023, this number is optimistic compared to 87 million Americans in 2020. More precisely, the number of Americans who have damaged their phones has decreased by 10.3% from 2020 to 2023, according to Allstate.
Allstate estimates that 31 out of every 100 smartphone owners in the United States have damaged their devices in the past year. Fortunately, only 8% permanently lost their phones due to damage and 5% had their phones stolen in 2023. The top issues reported by smartphone owners last year include a broken screen (67%), Wi-Fi or connectivity issues (28%), touch screen problems (24%), faulty charging ports (22%), water damage (21%), incorrect battery performance (21%), cracked edges (20%), speaker malfunctions (17%), dents in the corners or edges (15%), inaccurate camera operation (14%), and faulty microphones (11%).
The report also highlights the crucial role of smartphones in today’s lives. This role is so important that Allstate calculates that 27% of Americans will repair their devices immediately the next day after their screens are damaged. 36% of smartphone owners also said that if their devices have a broken button, they would wait no more than a day to repair it. 30% said the same about a broken speaker, 29% about a faulty microphone, and 22% about a broken camera.
Although 38% of Americans with broken phones will replace them with new devices, 32% decide to continue using their phones despite the damage. 23% take their broken devices to repair shops, while 17% attempt to repair them on their own.
Repairing broken phones is also quite costly. Allstate’s survey found that 49% of Americans will not pay to repair their phones to keep them functioning because of the cost. The average cost to repair a smartphone is $302; however, 47% of Americans say that their average repair cost is $150 or less.
So what happens to the broken smartphones? Allstate states that 40% of users will use their broken phones as backup devices and 35% will trade them in to get a discount on a new phone. 27% recycle these phones, 22% give them to friends or family members, 19% sell their broken phones, and 14% throw them in the trash. 38% of Americans say they would be interested in buying a refurbished phone, although 35% of those expressing interest would do so for environmental reasons.
The Allstate survey was conducted on 1,500 smartphone owners in the United States in May 2023 and an additional 1,004 people in December 2023.
