Were you one of the 78 million Americans who broke their phones in 2023?

“Good hands” monitor smartphone owners who have bad hands. Allstate Protection Plans reports that in 2023, 78 million Americans will have damaged their phones. And the amounts spent to repair smartphone screens are increasing sharply. Allstate says that in 2022, Americans spent $8.3 billion on screen repairs, compared to $3.4 billion on the same repairs in 2018. Since the launch of the first smartphone in the United States, repair of their connected phones cost Americans a whopping $149 billion. .

Fewer Americans damaged their smartphones in 2023 compared to 2020

78 million Americans have damaged their smartphones in 2023

Allstate says 31 out of 100 U.S. smartphone owners have damaged a phone in the past year. Fortunately, only 8% permanently lost their device due to damage and 5% had their phone stolen in 2023. The top problems reported by smartphone owners last year included a damaged screen (67%), followed by Wi-Fi or connectivity. issues (28%), issues with touchscreen (24%), damaged charging port (22%), water damage (21%), battery not working properly (21%), chipped corners/sides ( 20%), problems with the phone speaker (17%), a bump in the corner or side of the phone (15%), the camera does not work properly (14%), and the microphones do not not working properly (11%).

Here's an interesting statistic. It seems that more and more Americans are concerned about the environmental effects of repairing or replacing an appliance. 53% of Americans now say it's important to them, compared to 37% who said it was important in 2020. 46% of respondents said they know how to recycle an old or broken smartphone, although only 27% do. have recycled. such a phone.

It is undeniable that smartphones play a very important role in our lives. This role is so important that Allstate estimates that 27% of Americans who broke their phone screen initiated a repair for their device within the next day. 36% of smartphone owners also said that if their device had a broken button, they would wait a day or less to fix it. 30% said the same about damaged speakers, 29% about broken microphones, and 22% about a broken camera.

38% of Americans will replace their broken phones while 32% will keep damaged devices

Although 38% of Americans with a damaged phone ended up replacing the broken handset, 32% decided to continue using the phone despite the damage. 23% took their damaged device to a repair shop to be fixed while 17% tried to repair their phone themselves.

What do Americans do when they damage their smartphones?

Repairing a broken phone is expensive. Allstate's survey found that 49% of Americans would not pay to repair a broken phone that still worked because of the costs involved in repairing it. The average cost to repair or repair a smartphone is $302; Despite this data, 47% of Americans say the average repair will cost them $150 or less. And the resulting sticker shock falls into the “cost” category, as 39% of respondents said they keep a damaged phone because it costs too much to repair. 21% didn't want to spend time away from their phone and 15% said they wanted to wait for an update to replace the damaged device.

So what happens to damaged smartphones? 40% told Allstate they use a damaged handset as a backup and 35% trade in these damaged phones to reduce the price of 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 said they would be interested in purchasing a refurbished phone, although 35% of those expressing such interest would purchase a refurbished device for environmental reasons.

Allstate surveyed 1,500 U.S. smartphone owners in May 2023, and another 1,004 in December 2023.