Phone Repair
One thing that we don’t see much of in the United States are shops that actually fix smart phones. Yes, there is the occasional, rare kiosk that can replace broken screens. But that’s about the extent of it.
In other countries smart phone repair shops are quite common. They are certainly very affordable. A new screen on a smart phone is $30-$50. A new battery is about $20. A new logic board can be $100. Those prices include parts and labor.
Here is a picture of a smart phone repair shop. He fixes pretty much any model and any brand of smart phone you may have owned in the last five years. And, if you own a phone that no longer works he will buy it from you for salvageable parts.
Most manufacturers cooperate with these little shops. They sell them parts, and even provide technical documentation. There’s a good reason: these regions also have a booming used phone market. Manufacturers don’t view the sale of used phones as a bad thing, they view it as simply a lower level down in the customer food chain.
There is one large smart phone manufacturer who doesn’t cooperate with these shops. I won’t tell you their name, but they used to be the dominant smart phone manufacturer, and now they have only at 12% market share. No, it isn’t a Palm or Blackberry. Wrong fruit.