Mobile phones are too fragile for European businesses

New research has highlighted the fact that businesses in Europe are spending more than ever on mobile phones for their employees as increased costs and loss of productivity from phones being too fragile for the work environment helps make the case for rugged devices.

Cat phones and the Bullitt Group conducted a survey of mobile phone buyers at 497 European Businesses to reveal that 69 percent are spending more on company phones than ever before with more than half of respondents saying repair and replacement of broken devices is a growing problem for their business.

In the last three years, 99 per cent of business phone buyers have had to deal with damage to company phones and 86 percent say that there has been damage significant enough to require repair or replacement to an employee's device.

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According to the survey, the most common causes for device repair are broken screens (69%), physical breakage (47%), water damage (44%) and faults caused by dust or sand getting into the device (21%).

Impact on productivity

Productivity also goes down significantly when employees are forced to go without a mobile phone while it's being repaired or replaced.

Of those surveyed, 31 percent of businesses reported a major impact on productivity while a further 40 percent reported a notable impact on their productivity. Long repair times exacerbate this issue with just 21 percent saying repairs take up to one working day while the majority (63%) said repairs can take from two days up to a working week. Additionally, 16 percent of respondents have seen some repairs take even longer.

According to research from CCS Insight, one in three European consumers have experienced a broken smartphone screen in the last three years. Without insurance, replacing a broken smartphone screen is not cheap and can cost anywhere between $170 to $400. These costs can escalate even further in a business setting where buyers procure multiple devices for their workforce.

CCS Insight's Chief of Research, Ben Wood provided further insight on the findings of the survey, saying:

“The fragility of modern smartphones has become a real issue. It is little surprise that business are looking for more rugged devices given the costs associated with repairing smartphones and negative impact on productivity when a device breaks.”