Smartphone repair businesses sprout up in Westchester

It lasts less than a second, but that second can stop the beat of a smartphone user.

An expensive mobile device slips out of a hand and plummets 3 feet to Earth ”” will it emerged unscathed?

Since 2007, the year Apple released the first iPhone, mobile devices with shattered screens have been a common sight. But often, the expensive devices aren”™t ruined ”” and two Westchester County businesses have entered the niche market of repairing damaged electronics.

Just over a month ago, Patrick Harter launched iFixiBuy, which makes house calls to fix iPhones and other electronic devices in the Westchester area. He said the business fit with his tinkering nature.

“I”™d always built computers and stuff when I was a kid,” said Harter, whose business is based in New Rochelle. “I”™ve been taking things apart and putting them back together since I was 3 years old.”

Harter said broken screens are his most common repair, followed by water damage.

“Lots of people drop their phones in toilets,” Harter said with a laugh. “I”™d say 90 percent of the water-damaged phones we see are dropped in toilets. You wouldn”™t believe it, but it”™s true.”

Apple”™s newest iPhone models, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, range in price from $199 To $499, depending on the model and amount of storage space, while the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will set a buyer back about $300 with a contract.

For Harter”™s iFixiBuy, and for uBreakiFix, a franchised chain out of Orlando, Fla., with locations in Mount Kisco and Scarsdale, those big prices mean big business.

UBreakiFix has nearly 100 locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and made the Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. by three-year percentage revenue growth, in 2013 and 2014.

“In addition to phones, we do computers, game consoles and basically any small electronics as long as it is cost-effective to the consumer,” said Jesse Glassberg, the district manager for the uBreakiFix stores in Mount Kisco and Scarsdale.

At the uBreakiFix store in Scarsdale, a team of three technicians was working on different repair projects in the back, where Glassberg showed the Business Journal the first broken iPhone 6 to come in.

“I”™m going to try and fix it this afternoon; it”™ll be our first iPhone 6 repair,” Glassberg said.

The reason the cellphone repair business has gotten big recently is the replacement cost of the devices. For those buying the phone without a cellular service plan, which often happens when a phone is damaged beyond repair, the prices are much higher: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus cost between $649 and $949, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will run at about $900.

When a new model comes out, as the iPhone 6 recently did and the Galaxy Note 4 soon will, people are often caught between upgrades. Those people often pay the full price for the new phone and sell the older, but still functioning, model.

“There is literally billions of dollars in value in old phones just sitting around in drawers,” said Nik Raman, chief operating officer of uSell.com, a website that enables the owners of outdated or damaged phones to sell them online. To date, the site has linked sellers of more than 375,000 phones with buyers.

Raman said used phones are divided into grades. A phone with a cracked screen would get a C grade, a phone that no longer turns on would get a D grade, and a phone with a bent body, as can happen with the iPhone 6, would get an E grade.

“Those E grade phones are almost junk. They have virtually no resale value,” Raman said.

But for those less-damaged phones, there is some value. A 64GB iPhone 5s that does not power on, has a cracked screen or body, or is not fully functional still could sell for about $115 on uSell.com.

For those just keeping a phone alive until the next new model comes out or they are allowed to upgrade, fixing the phone might be the best option.

“If someone is between upgrades and doesn”™t have insurance, that”™s where we come in,” said Glassberg at uBreakiFix, where a screen replacement on an iPhone costs about $100, and a little more for a Samsung Galaxy.