Have you ever dropped your phone? I have, although only once or twice. Have you ever damaged your phone, whether that be cracked screen, scuff mark, or water damage? I, thankfully, haven’t. My fellow Americans, on the other hand, are a completely different story. According to a study released by SquareTrade, a third-party warranty provider, damaged iPhone have cost Americans a grand total of $5.9 billion since 2007.

In its 2012 Smartphone Accident Survey, SquareTrade surveyed 2,000 iPhone owners from across the United States then extrapolated the results of the survey to the remaining population. What did SquareTrade find? 30% of iPhone owners have damaged their phone in last 12 months; 17% have damaged their phone more than once; 11% use iPhones with cracked screens; 6% have taped their iPhone; and 50% of iPhone owners aged under 35 have damaged their iPhone in some way. The study also reveals the top five ways people damage their iPhones:

• Phone dropped from my hand (30%)
• Phone fell into a toilet, a swimming pool or a lake (18%)
• Phone dropped from lap (13%)
• Phone knocked off a table (11%)
• Phone drenched by some liquid (9%)

In total, the costs “repairs, replacements and insurance deductibles for cracked, dropped, pummeled, kicked, and water-damaged iPhones” is estimated at $5.9 for Americans since 2007. That, as SquareTrade points out, is twice the amount Americans spend on toilet paper every year.

I wonder how clumsy Android owners are.

[via CNET]