ditch#3
米国のスマートフォンの保全費用についての記事です。米国では，スマートフォンを持つユーザーの30%が，購入してから12ヶ月以外に何らかの損傷を与え，10%が，スクリーンに傷がついたまま使い続けているそうです。取替え費用も平均で$450もかかり，使用料以外の費用も多く支出していることが伺えます。この記事ではスマホを取替えるのではなく，修繕することを推奨した記事です。修繕サービスは充実しているようで，破損したスマホを修理屋に郵送して，修復後，送り返してくれるサービスもあります。費用も抑えられているため魅力的であると思いました。記事の見出に出てくる"ditch"は，「溝」ではなく，「を取り除く, 捨てる」という俗語があるそうです（『Wisdom英和辞典第三版（三省堂）』）。捨てずに治そうというタイトルですね。（Ume）
Don’t Ditch Your Broken Smartphone, Fix It: ‘Real Money’ Tells You How
Americans have spent about $13 billion on damaged smartphones, according to Square Trade, a tech insurance company.
The company says that 30 percent of Americans will damage their iPhone in the next 12 months. And one in 10 are currently using phones with cracked screens.
It can cost $450 or more to replace a phone but before you throw your cellphone out, there are places that will repair it for about $100.
After cracking the screen on her smartphone again, Chandon Jones of New York teamed up with the “Real Money” team to drop her phone off at a Radio Shack.
This month, Radio Shack rolled out its new “Fix It Here” program, in which consumers can spend $40 to $200 to have their cellphone fixed in an hour.
And other companies are getting in on the craze as well. You can ship a phone to JCD Repair in Chicago and the company will fix it and send it back five days later for around $100. The company iCracked will even meet the cellphone owner wherever they are.
“You’re actually going to end up paying probably less to get an iPhone fixed by someone than you’ll pay for the deductible to the insurance company,” said Matt McCormick, CEO of JCD Repair.
All of these companies offer warranties and cost about $100 on average.
