SquareTrade, the branded extended service provider, has released its annual Super Bowl damage report for mobile devices.
The numbers should either make you run out and buy a service contract for your tablet or smartphone if you don’t already have one, or head for the hills if you administer or underwrite any of these protection plans.
Based on the company’s own poll of 2,732 online consumers this month using Google Consumer Surveys, SquareTrade extrapolated that some 23 million Americans have damaged their mobile devices in the passion of a sporting event, costing over $2 billion in repairs and replacements.
Of those, 20 percent, or nearly 50 million phone owners, have dropped their handsets in the toilet, up from 10 percent just two years ago, and 15 percent, or about 36 million citizens, have damaged a smartphone in a fit of emotion.
Among other findings: Drinkers of imported beer are 22 percent more likely than most to damage a phone, while microbrew imbibers are 37 percent less likely to do so, and fans who prefer spinach dip have a 10 percent greater likelihood of damaging a mobile phone over the course of a year.
And what of the Big Game? Advantage Patriots, as Seahawks fans are 11 percent clumsier than their East Coast counterparts, with 21 percent experiencing a phone accident within the past 12 months, vs. 19 percent of Pats supporters.
“The Seahawks’ ‘12th Man’ fan base is known for their intensity during the game,” remarked SquareTrade chief marketing officer Ty Shay, “so it’s not a huge surprise that their emotions occasionally get the best of them and their phone pays the price.”
Shay added that given the dramatic rise in close encounters of the phone-toilet kind, and NBC’s free live streaming of the entire game, “We’re expecting a lot more claims around water damage Monday morning.”
