Do You Protect Your iPhone? It’s a Case Study That Divides Americans.

As smartphones balloon in price, some pushing past $1,000, there is a debate between case haves and case have-nots. One side says it makes absolutely no sense to ferry such expensive gadgets unprotected — especially one vital to modern living. From a report: Phone-case holdouts say their nervous pals are delusional, clinging to their bulky silicon prophylactics like a security blanket. Cases cause carelessness, they say, leading to phones dropped, slammed and stepped-on. Having no protective case “makes me pay attention,” says Drew Davidson, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. “I have friends that break every phone even though they have cases.”