When travelling on the train the other day I couldn’t help noticing not just how everybody is glued to their smartphone these days, but also how many phones seemed to be sporting rather ugly cracked and damaged screens. As you can imagine, with my background in protective packaging I probably take what might be seen as a rather unhealthy interest in such matters!

This most modern of problems has spawned a whole new industry and area of interest. A quick check on Google Trends revealed just how much this area has grown, from being a relatively unknown issue a few years ago to the dreaded fear for many of us today. Since 2009 the average number of monthly searches for ‘cracked screens’ has grown by over 600%

A whole industry, with ever more sophisticated services has grown up to support this problem. Anything from a national on-demand repair service where the repair technician comes to you and fixes your phone on the same day, to community projects such as Restart, a social enterprise that encourages and empowers people to use their electronics longer, by sharing repair and maintenance skills. Along with many high street shops offering drop-in repair services.  Amazing to think that just a few years ago this problem didn’t really exist!

As screen sizes increase and we become more and more attached to our screens, taking them with us wherever we go, that dreaded moment when the phone slips out of our hands and we look down to see a cracked and crazed screen is only likely to increase.

Whilst air cushioned packaging protection can’t always be there to save the day, I like to think we’re playing our part in reducing this very modern problem by preventing breakages of fragile electronic devices during transit. And we’re constantly evolving our products to cater for the latest developments. Take care out there!

Rob Bishop