Imagine the royal tantrum thrown by the young iPhone user in the summer of 2007 after inadvertently smashing the casing a week into a two-year contract.
Imagine the hissy fit on learning he could have had it repaired for $25, rather than spending more than $400 on a new phone.
If a good option in a booming economy like the summer of ”™07, it is even better heading into the summer of 2009 as luxuries like smart phones become subject to line-item vetoes in household budgets.
Long before Apple Inc.”™s alchemists brewed up the iPhone, Barbara Diaz and her husband Orlando conjured up the Wireless Wizard, a Bridgeport repair shop established in 1996 as the Pager Wizard to repair pagers; later adding mobile telephone repairs as it evolved with the times.
After starting up the business with $6,000 ”“ the money needed to purchase tools for repairing pagers ”“ the company has since invested in its appearance, recreating its storefront in the likeness of a medieval castle.
Today, the company”™s revenue is evenly split between cell phone repairs, accessories and sales of service plans according to Barbara Diaz.
Cell phone providers offer protection plans that cover hardware repair, but many consumers pass up on those offers, some to save money in hopes they won”™t need it, others on the theory that with rapid evolutions in technology they will want an upgrade by the time they get around to breaking their handheld.
And while national mail-in repair services exist, Diaz thinks consumers like the idea of being able to look their technician in the eye as they hand off the device containing important contact information or precious digital photos.
The Wireless Wizard also promotes cell phone safety at local high schools, and coaches seniors in the area on plans and functions.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report earlier this year, for the first time in 2007 U.S. households spent more on cell phone services than for traditional landline telephones. In 2001, consumers paid $686 on average for their household telephones, and $210 per year for mobile phone service. By 2007, the annual mobile bill had ballooned to $608, while the plain old telephone had dropped to $482 as Internet switches allowed carriers to provide flat-rate, long-distance plans.
According to a report last year by ACNielsen, which has a Wilton office, 17 percent of U.S. households abandoned landlines completely and are relying on their cell phones for home use. ACNielsen theorized that was driven primarily by the motive to cut household spending.
The Census Bureau theorizes that the change might also be driven by the rapid development of applications on cell phones catering to youthful users. As those customers leave school for their own dwellings, many are not bothering to call their local telephone company for a new line ”“ although cable television companies have made inroads by bundling telephone service with their TV and Internet offerings.
The rapid proliferation of those applications creates a constant challenge for repair shops like the Wireless Wizard, which must keep up with technical changes. The iPhone provided one such quantum leap in technological innovation, and Diaz expects it won”™t be the last.
“People were coming in the door a week after the iPhone was released (for repairs),” Diaz said. “I definitely think that people are looking to repair a phone in a down economy.”
