Today I went to buy another iPad for use in my office. After buying it, the first thing I thought about was buying a screen protector and a casing. Now I didn’t need a new casing because Arnold was sending me one of his really BEAUTIFUL Aranez ones already.
But yeah I thought I totally needed a screen protector. So I asked for one at the Apple dealer and they showed me two types.
One with anti-glare that costs RM75 and another that costs RM125 or something like that. The latter was a “crystal clear” one with no anti-glare but was apparently from a really good brand in Japan. My jaw dropped at the price. Here I just spent RM2,100 on an iPad and it costs another RM125 just to buy a screen protector for it? Just a screen protector? So if I bought a casing as well I would spend maybe RM250-RM300 on protecting my iPad? Which is a little bit more than 10% of the cost.
Of course there are two ways of looking at it, on one hand… since you’ve already spent RM2,100 on it, what’s another RM250 to take better care of it. On the other hand, I’m the kind of guy who changes my devices every year… because well like a typical guy I like gadgets. So the lifespan of me using this will be maybe 1… or maximum 2 years. Think about it, how many of us really use our mobile phones for longer than that these days? Do you see many people still carry an iPhone 3G with them ? All I see are iPhone 4s today… and if I’m lucky once in a while I’ll spot a 3Gs but never a 3G.
Then Shorty asked me a question:
“Do you even need a screen protector?”
And it hit me.
Apple claimed that the iPhone 4’s screen is made of aerospace-grade glass that is “Chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic”. I remember the copy on its website when it first launched it’s iPhone 4. How Apple said that the glass on its iPhone 4 was made of the same material used to make helicopter windscreens. HELICOPTER WINDSCREENS… WOAH!
It’s also “fingerprint resistant”. So why the hell do we need a screen protector? Are we buying things that we really don’t need? I mean you don’t see people buying screen protectors to protect the face of their Rolex’s do they? Not to mention people are generally expected to use their Rolex’s for much longer than they’re expected to usetheir iPhones or iPads before a next change.
The answer is… no the iPhone/iPad’s screens are NOT scratch proof. Even according to this Gizmodo entry, people HAVE scratched their iPhone 4 screens.
And stress tests on YouTube have shown… yes… it does get scratched.
And go around looking at forums and yes you’ll see people talking about how they have a big scratch on their iPhone or iPad.
So yes… if you want to protect your gadgets, buy a screen protector. But are we paying too much for them? My opinion is YES. I think it’s crazy how a screen protector can cost RM125! Ask for a cheaper one and the sales person will tell you they’re not very good and etc etc. Sure you get what you pay for.
Then I remembered what a friend of mine once told me.
I have a friend who used to work at an Apple reseller here in Malaysia. When I met him I asked him
“Woah your bosses must make a lot of money seeing how many iPads they’re selling here”.
His answer was
“Nah… we don’t make much from each iPad sold. Maybe like RM20 or something. Margins are really low because Apple controls the price. What we do make A LOT of margin from though are 3rd party accessories”.
That’s right. That means if they sell a screen protector for RM125, the cost to the reseller could be a fraction to that and the cost to the manufacturer probably even a smaller fraction. Can you blame them though? No! It’s business and supply and demand. If this is the market rate then sure let it be. Businesses must make enough profit to continue providing the service/product. But am I paying much more for my screen protector than its worth compared to my iPad?
For me… what I do know is this. I won’t pay RM125 for an iPad protector. That’s too much.
I have just taken my screen protectors off my iPhone 4 because it was full of scratches after a year. I’m going to try using my iPhone 4 now without it and see for myself if I will really need to buy a screen protector for my phone in future.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space