In 2018 , what percentage of phone repair are software vs hardware ?

[joe talin]

I'm pretty good at the software side of phones. But i suck at the hardware side(opening and replacing).

Is it worth servicing clients ?

Or that most client calls are hardware related ?

 

[River Valley Computer]

I'm pretty good at the software side of phones. But i suck at the hardware side(opening and replacing).

Is it worth servicing clients ?

Or that most client calls are hardware related ?

90% replacing screen, charging ports and batteries. The rest operator error or resets.

 

[Markverhyden]

I think that given smart device s/w repair is almost always nuke and pave it's safe to say that end users can handle that. What they can't handle is data preservation.

 

[pcpete]

we get a fair amount of nuke and paves, most often without data. We don't offer hardware repairs on screens.

 

[joe talin]

we get a fair amount of nuke and paves, most often without data. We don't offer hardware repairs on screens.

Thanks. That's interesting.

What age groups ? Income ? etc

 

[pcpete]

Usually 40 or older. All income levels. Many people don't want to figure out the process or often they need help resetting a password needed to reset the phone

 

[labtech]

Usually 40 or older. All income levels. Many people don't want to figure out the process or often they need help resetting a password needed to reset the phone

Just curious.. Do you advertise for this service OR is it organic? TIA.

 

[Tony Hutton]

I'm pretty good at the software side of phones. But i suck at the hardware side(opening and replacing).

Is it worth servicing clients ?

Or that most client calls are hardware related ?

I had my cellphone repair shop for six years. During that time, I personally repaired over 16,000 devices. I would say that 95% of the fixes were hardware related. By far the most popular fix was screen replacement; followed by battery replacement, charging ports, speakers, flex cables, etc. In the days when AT&T was the only iphone carrier, I would get customers wanting to jailbreak their phones to run iPhones on T-Mobile. Now that all the carriers have iPhones, this isn't a service that repair shops offer. I also unlocked phones, which I farmed out to a third party provider.

If all you want to work on is software, then I would say that your business will be very limited. In fact, when I had my shop I stayed away from software-related issues. They were too time consuming and the profit margin was less than what I got for hardware fixes. My shop was successful because I was able to fix phones fast - and I treated my customers with respect and was honest with them. When I was at the top of my game, I could tear down an iPhone 4 and replace the screen in less than 15 minutes. I could also fix iPhone 5's and 6's in about 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, Apple (and other Manufacturers) have made their phones almost unserviceable by repair shops. This started with the iPhone 5S home button flex cable, which became mated to the motherboard - this meant that in order to keep touch ID functionality, you had to go to apple to fix your broken home button.

Bottomline - don't expect a lot of business if you focus on just software. (I hope this helps.)

 

[crwd]

I had my cellphone repair shop for six years. During that time, I personally repaired over 16,000 devices. I would say that 95% of the fixes were hardware related. By far the most popular fix was screen replacement; followed by battery replacement, charging ports, speakers, flex cables, etc. In the days when AT&T was the only iphone carrier, I would get customers wanting to jailbreak their phones to run iPhones on T-Mobile. Now that all the carriers have iPhones, this isn't a service that repair shops offer. I also unlocked phones, which I farmed out to a third party provider.

If all you want to work on is software, then I would say that your business will be very limited. In fact, when I had my shop I stayed away from software-related issues. They were too time consuming and the profit margin was less than what I got for hardware fixes. My shop was successful because I was able to fix phones fast - and I treated my customers with respect and was honest with them. When I was at the top of my game, I could tear down an iPhone 4 and replace the screen in less than 15 minutes. I could also fix iPhone 5's and 6's in about 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, Apple (and other Manufacturers) have made their phones almost unserviceable by repair shops. This started with the iPhone 5S home button flex cable, which became mated to the motherboard - this meant that in order to keep touch ID functionality, you had to go to apple to fix your broken home button.

Bottomline - don't expect a lot of business if you focus on just software. (I hope this helps.)

In my experience with software fixes customers are like: why am i supposed to pay 40 bucks for 15 min off your time?
I once had a older person in the store i worked for that asked me to teach him how to use his new phone. After like 30 min. he was like: 20 bucks? for this? na thats too much money...
But if its about laptops/pc´s they are willing to pay 100 bucks for a new windows 10 install even without copying any data...
Most customers are stupid they think you only have to press 1 or 2 buttons and its done.
It might be better to partner with someone who does hardware and has enough customers so he can afford to hire someone exspecialy for software stuff.

 

[Computer Bloke]

Most customers are stupid they think you only have to press 1 or 2 buttons and its done.

I think your contempt might be misplaced.

It's fairer to say that many customers have very little interest in the details of how their problems are solved, and nobody like spending money on things they don't understand.

 

[crwd]

I think your contempt might be misplaced.

It's fairer to say that many customers have very little interest in the details of how their problems are solved, and nobody like spending money on things they don't understand.

ok yea that was not very accurate.
I dont mean they are idiots in general but they most likely dont really know anything about our business.
Ive seen really stupid stuff customers do: deleting imei, stuffing sim without cart, flashing roms without backup, trying to fix i7 lcd resulting in broken lcd + homebutton + front cam, and so on.
Often they lie about what happened and want us to replace the lcd again for free because they smashed it but tell us they didnt drop it.
I can just tell you how its over here.
At your location it may differ.