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25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

finance.yahoo.com

41–50 of 71 posts

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#41

Hmmm. I googled, found a college kid nearby, met him at Subway and he did my (4) in 30 minutes for $75. 3 months later no issues. Maybe the 4 is meaningfully cheaper?

In the IPhone 5, the glass and digitizer are bonded. Apple charges $149 to replace them. I'm sure it's possible to do it cheaper.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#42

Hmmm. I googled, found a college kid nearby, met him at Subway and he did my (4) in 30 minutes for $75. 3 months later no issues. Maybe the 4 is meaningfully cheaper?

Yes, the iCracked iPhone 4 screen repair usually runs around $80 with a 99 Year Part Warranty. iPhone 5 Parts are more costly right now and thus the repair cost is higher.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#43
post #26
post #19

Genuinely curious about how this is a venture-funded company. How is this scalable? Is there any tech involved at all? (Not that technology is necessary to be venture-funded, but it helps with nonlinear growth.)

It is just a PR piece to get attention of potential funding sources. As I mentioned previously in my comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5272017 , I don't believe numbers add up. Business is unlikely to be scalable or around in next 5 years.

Your math is wrong, and your assumptions incorrect.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#44
post #43
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is just a PR piece to get attention of potential funding sources. As I mentioned previously in my comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5272017 , I don't believe numbers add up. Business is unlikely to be scalable or around in next 5 years.

Your math is wrong, and your assumptions incorrect.

Do you care to enlighten or this is the best you could do to make a counter-argument?

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#45
A friend of mine runs a repair shop in Miami. He told me that a few of his competitors were raided by the DOJ for doing unlicensed repairs using Oem parts from china. Apple apparently didn't want anyone other than official stores doing repairs. Guy whose shop was raided had thousands in parts confiscated.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#46

A friend of mine runs a repair shop in Miami. He told me that a few of his competitors were raided by the DOJ for doing unlicensed repairs using Oem parts from china. Apple apparently didn't want anyone other than official stores doing repairs. Guy whose shop was raided had thousands in parts confiscated.

Huh? This doesn't make any sense. There is no IP right that lets you prevent non OEM parts to be installed in a product. If that were the case mechanics would all be out of business. There must have been another issue here.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#47
post #46

A friend of mine runs a repair shop in Miami. He told me that a few of his competitors were raided by the DOJ for doing unlicensed repairs using Oem parts from china. Apple apparently didn't want anyone other than official stores doing repairs. Guy whose shop was raided had thousands in parts confiscated.

Huh? This doesn't make any sense. There is no IP right that lets you prevent non OEM parts to be installed in a product. If that were the case mechanics would all be out of business. There must have been another issue here.

The parent said it was OEM parts.

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#48
What I want to know: Why can't these phones use plastic screens? Good acrylic is more clear than glass, lighter, safer, more durable. I wouldn't be shocked if iPhones were designed to shatter easily.

I'm seriously thinking of switching back to my ancient Blackberry: plastic screen that doesn't crack, battery lasts a week, make calls by pressing one button, I can turn it off and on easily...

Re: 25 year-old's company makes millions on cracked iPhone screens [video]

#49
post #22
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i believe iphone 4s and 5 have welded glass or something making it much harder to replace alone. as a result usually they replace lcd+glass which make it much more expensive.

You can generally buy the digitizer + lcd on ebay for about 30 bucks. It's a lot of small screws, but really not too difficult to swap out. Took me about 45 minutes.

For any phone I would recommend buying the digitizer/lcd combined. It's such a pain to separate the two (on phones where it's even possible) and only slightly more expensive.
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