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Nearly 1 in 5 people drop their smartphone in the toilet

Mike Flacy By

smartphone-toilet

Apparently, it's a popular practice to break out the smartphone around the toilet. A new study from Plaxo details how people damage their phones and the cost in replacing data.

Based off a new study from Plaxo, 19 percent of people drop their smartphone in the toilet and are forced to spend money on a costly replacement. Plaxo is in the business of protecting data as its service provides contact syncing across a variety of devices. This data corresponds with another study from Google that stated nearly four out of every ten people bring the phone into the bathroom for use. Of the 19 percent, more than half state that the biggest hassle in replacing a mobile phone is restoring the contact database.

smartphone-rice-waterThe study also stated that 66 percent of people use the same address book to store both workplace and personal contacts. When asked about the value of their contact lists, the minimum response was $500 while the maximum was “priceless”. Specific to people in the Generation Y category, thirty two percent of this demographic is likely to backup all contacts in the address book to cloud-based storage. Sixty five percent of Gen. Y are very comfortable with using online backups and twenty two percent are likely to own a tablet. Generation Y is also the most likely to pay for cloud service in regards to data backup and 24 percent consider it worth over $1,000.

With 25 percent of Americans preferring to browse the Internet with a smartphone instead of a PC, it’s no surprise that people are using smartphones more often and putting them at greater risk of accidents. Forty percent of the respondents expect to rely more on the cloud over the next two years. People that routinely backed up data from computers were far more likely to backup their phone data as well. Specific to smartphone owners, 72 percent routinely back up their data from the phone and 68 percent backed up data on home computers. For anyone that does drop a mobile phone into the toilet, placing the phone in dry rice is a popular home remedy. The rice soaks up the moisture inside the phone.

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Showing 57 comments

  1. Preston Smalley at 10:46am 22nd July 2011 Great piece Mike. Beyond dropping it in the toilet, one in six's child destroyed the phone with a bunch also leaving it behind at a restaurant (15%), in a taxi cab (9%), or at a concert (7%) [http://slidesha.re/orCiW1]. I hope people take this as a wake up call to backup and not assume it won't ever happen to them as most agree the stuff on those phones is incredibly valuable.
    1. Preston Smalley at 10:47am 22nd July 2011 URL broke above: http://slidesha.re/orCiW1
  2. BurntHam77 at 7:46am 22nd July 2011 People are gross.
  3. Mark Ahrens at 1:45pm 22nd July 2011 Guilty as charged. Fortunately the phone never worked again since it wasn't, dare I say "pristine" anymore. Fortunately, Verizon shipped me one overnight as a replacement..
  4. Mark Ahrens at 1:45pm 22nd July 2011 Guilty as charged. Fortunately the phone never worked again since it wasn't, dare I say "pristine" anymore. Fortunately, Verizon shipped me one overnight as a replacement..
  5. Mark Ahrens at 1:45pm 22nd July 2011 Guilty as charged. Fortunately the phone never worked again since it wasn't, dare I say "pristine" anymore. Fortunately, Verizon shipped me one overnight as a replacement..
  6. Scotty Quill at 11:11am 22nd July 2011 I fall into the nearly category.... err twice!
  7. Scotty Quill at 11:11am 22nd July 2011 I fall into the nearly category.... err twice!
  8. Scotty Quill at 11:11am 22nd July 2011 I fall into the nearly category.... err twice!
  9. Scotty Quill at 11:11am 22nd July 2011 I fall into the nearly category.... err twice!
  10. Pat Allen at 10:45am 22nd July 2011 I was one!
  11. Pat Allen at 10:45am 22nd July 2011 I was one!
  12. Pat Allen at 10:45am 22nd July 2011 I was one!
  13. Pat Allen at 10:45am 22nd July 2011 I was one!
  14. Pat Allen at 10:45am 22nd July 2011 I was one!
  15. williammmbu at 2:52am 22nd July 2011 Now if you are like most of us your life more or less revolves around your mobile phone, it has become the first thing most people pick up when they go out the door before anything else. Yet it is one of the last things we think of protecting. Why ? Because we all think “it won’t happen to me”. All those vital phone numbers lost. All those great pictures you had of your family and friends lost. All those video clips you recorded while on holiday lost. Now isn’t all that worth saving.
  16. williammmbu at 2:48am 22nd July 2011 Then there is the age old favourite of not doing as you mum told you when you put your clothes in for wash, empty your pockets. 116,000 handsets went for a spin with your dirty laundry. Now that’s just 5 popular ways we find to lose our mobile phones which I am sure that a few of you reading this have done in the past. Never mind the phones that have ended up getting lost up mountains / hills or gone for a dip in swimming pools, the list goes on and of course there the phones that are just stolen.
  17. Michael Khoury at 9:17am 22nd July 2011 Wodnring y ?....... ;) :PP
  18. Michael Khoury at 9:17am 22nd July 2011 Wodnring y ?....... ;) :PP
  19. John Turner at 8:46am 22nd July 2011 how many people dropped their phones in the toilet while reading this? lol
  20. Chris Arnold at 6:16am 22nd July 2011 Not very smart people.
  21. Chris Arnold at 6:16am 22nd July 2011 Not very smart people.
  22. Ernesto Sutil at 5:57am 22nd July 2011 yeah cough sigh ummmm
  23. Ernesto Sutil at 5:57am 22nd July 2011 yeah cough sigh ummmm
  24. Ernesto Sutil at 5:57am 22nd July 2011 yeah cough sigh ummmm
  25. Trevor Mogg at 10:33pm 21st July 2011 Just remember not to eat the rice afterwards.
    1. Ian Bell at 10:46pm 21st July 2011 What do you mean exactly Trevor? :)
      1. Trevor Mogg at 10:48pm 21st July 2011 ...unless you fancy a kind of toilet-based risotto ;)
  26. Mike Dunn at 10:15pm 21st July 2011 Sort of shocking that people would be such a value on their contacts. Without even trying I think have my contact list backed up in a number of places. Doesn't hurt that google contacts has at least two of each of them.
    1. Ian Bell at 10:45pm 21st July 2011 Agreed. Plus I think iTunes backs up the iPhone when its plugged in/synced. Most people use Gmail so their contacts should be synced with that too.
  27. Rawbean Shakya at 5:11am 22nd July 2011 my contacts are synced with google....
  28. Rawbean Shakya at 5:11am 22nd July 2011 my contacts are synced with google....
  29. Kevin Benedict Prudon at 5:11am 22nd July 2011 haha! the phones are smart but the owners surely are not :))
  30. Kevin Benedict Prudon at 5:11am 22nd July 2011 haha! the phones are smart but the owners surely are not :))
  31. Kevin Benedict Prudon at 5:11am 22nd July 2011 haha! the phones are smart but the owners surely are not :))
  32. Jared Sirilo at 4:58am 22nd July 2011 Lol people admit to it being a toilet?
  33. Jared Sirilo at 4:58am 22nd July 2011 Lol people admit to it being a toilet?
  34. Jared Sirilo at 4:58am 22nd July 2011 Lol people admit to it being a toilet?
  35. Jared Sirilo at 4:58am 22nd July 2011 Lol people admit to it being a toilet?
  36. Jared Sirilo at 4:58am 22nd July 2011 Lol people admit to it being a toilet?
  37. Kurtis Kronk at 4:57am 22nd July 2011 Apparently it's common for women to put a phone in their back jeans pocket, and when they sit down it pops out into the toilet. That's one way it happens, anyways.
  38. Kurtis Kronk at 4:57am 22nd July 2011 Apparently it's common for women to put a phone in their back jeans pocket, and when they sit down it pops out into the toilet. That's one way it happens, anyways.
  39. Kurtis Kronk at 4:57am 22nd July 2011 Apparently it's common for women to put a phone in their back jeans pocket, and when they sit down it pops out into the toilet. That's one way it happens, anyways.
  40. Eric Rinus at 4:55am 22nd July 2011 i had 6 phones and not 1 ever fell into the toilet this is my 7th, my second smart phone and its also safe and dry.lol
  41. Eric Rinus at 4:55am 22nd July 2011 i had 6 phones and not 1 ever fell into the toilet this is my 7th, my second smart phone and its also safe and dry.lol
  42. Eric Rinus at 4:55am 22nd July 2011 i had 6 phones and not 1 ever fell into the toilet this is my 7th, my second smart phone and its also safe and dry.lol
  43. Michael Lane at 4:54am 22nd July 2011 I worked for cellphone insurance and almost every call I took was a Dropped in the Toilet call.
  44. Ian Bell at 9:46pm 21st July 2011 My 3-year old threw her older sisters iPod touch in the toilet the first day she got it!
  45. Akbar Hossain at 4:44am 22nd July 2011 lmao not meee
  46. Corey Plant at 4:40am 22nd July 2011 ummm did that
  47. Dan Gaul at 9:39pm 21st July 2011 Almost did this the other day. I did the whole juggle between two hands and then finally caught it.
  48. Rachel Houghton at 4:39am 22nd July 2011 *cough* I did that. Only reason I now have an iphone 4 instead of 3gs. And it fell into the toilet before "anything" happened.
  49. Eric Toribio Lora at 4:38am 22nd July 2011 lol
  50. Jorge Flores at 4:37am 22nd July 2011 2 out of three pull it right back out....... piss and all!!!
  51. Mostafa Turk at 4:36am 22nd July 2011 lol
  52. Matt Sublette at 4:35am 22nd July 2011 1 out of 5 idiots!
  53. Kurtis Kronk at 4:35am 22nd July 2011 That is disgusting. Though I happen to know for a fact that certain Otterbox cases fare quite well in a toilet.
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