BusinessReport.com

The life of Apple’s iPhone could be hazardous. Slippery fingers could let the smartphone slip and plummet to the pavement, resulting in a cracked screen or casing. Or it could take a dip in the swimming pool, leading to waterlogged circuits.

In some instances, hysteria overtakes the owner, for whom a nonworking iPhone might mean the loss of contact information such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses, photos, music and other personal information that have been stored on a single device.

For an entrepreneur with the repair skills and the connections to track down replacement parts, the fallibility of the machine and the vulnerability of its owner represent an opportunity to fill a niche. As a result, the iPhone repair market has burst onto the Baton Rouge business scene over the past two years.

But Conrad Green and Jeff Lyons don’t see themselves as following a trend so much as setting one. Green and Lyons own myPhoneMD, an in-store repair service that is rapidly expanding statewide.

After owning their own businesses in Baton Rouge and Mandeville, respectively, Green and Lyons teamed last year under one umbrella designed to take the iPhone repair world by storm. They cut the ribbon last month on a Lafayette store—the fifth location in a chain that includes two stores in Baton Rouge and one each in Mandeville and New Orleans—and plan to open four locations in Louisiana and Mississippi by the end of the year. Their first franchise, to be located in South Carolina, currently is in the works.

“We realized that [iPhone repair] could be done faster, cheaper and with a greater emphasis on customer experience on a local level,” Lyons says. “Instead of dealing with a large national entity, we’re bringing the service into the local community.”

The iPhone craze—Apple was predicted to sell 36 million iPhones worldwide in 2010, a 40% increase from last year’s estimates—also has inspired businesses that focus on other areas to jump into repairs.

Brooke Barnett, the managing partner of Screen Rehab, says the concept was born out of the gold- and jewelry-buying business We Buy Gold. Four months into the launch, Screen Rehab advertises a five-minute repair and sees between 10 and 20 customers per day at three locations—one each in Baton Rouge, Metairie and Prairieville. Two more stores are scheduled to come online this month.

“[iPhone repair] was a natural fit for us, and there is some stiff competition in Baton Rouge,” Barnett says. “The main way we distinguish ourselves is by the five-minute screen repair. People really like that they can walk out of the door with their phone ready to use.”

When an employee with experience as a former AT&T technician approached him with the concept of an iPhone repair service, Doctor Computer owner Marcus Michelli was at first skeptical. His business still specializes in computer repair, with iPhone and touch-screen repairs offered as a profitable side venture.

“It was a good move for us,” he says. “We get about 10 to 15 repairs a day. There’s a huge market out there.”

Why iPhones? Michelli says the running joke among AT&T representatives is that 80% of their customers own an iPhone, and the other 20% are just waiting for an upgrade. If that logic behind the joke reflects reality, volume might be reason enough to explore launching a repair business.

Most iPhone repair businesses cite the lack of resources Apple customers have when their phone is damaged or a part becomes defective. Apple consistently focuses on product development and delivery, but there is very little emphasis on repair once the product gets to the consumer. The options are expensive if the customer does not have a warranty: he or she must send off the phone to have it repaired. Calls to Apple’s public relations department were not returned.

“They [Apple] are in the business of designing, marketing and selling incredible pieces of technology. They’re not in the business of fixing them,” Lyons says. “I feel that we’re on the forefront of change in the repair and services of mobile devices.”

And though Apple and AT&T rolled out an insurance policy on iPhones, the $13.99 monthly plan only is available within 30 days of a new purchase and has a $99 to $199 deductible, depending on the model. That’s a pretty steep cost, Barnett says, when compared to a repair done locally.

As for the future of iPhone repair, the reviews are mixed. Green and Lyons are not coy about having national aspirations. Their business model might seem risky to some in this economic environment. But Lyons says myPhoneMD provides a service that is invaluable to customers and promises to become more prevalent as people continue to invest in smartphones.

“We were a national entity when we had one store in our minds,” Lyons says. “We’re going to continue to expand. One of the driving forces in this partnership is a like-mindedness of where we could go and how big we could be.”

Screen Rehab has begun expanding quickly in Louisiana because customers are more than willing to line up to have their phones repaired, Barnett says, but they aren’t willing to drive long distances to do it. A physical location is necessary, Barnett adds, because of the instant gratification that comes when a customer can use the phone immediately after a repair.

“People love their phones and don’t want to be without them,” he says. “We are very connected to our phones, and that is one of the reasons this [concept] works so well.”

Michelli sees the opposite trend. The debut of the iPhone 4 last month features a device with built-in safety measures, including a screen that is much more difficult to crack. Since such cracks make up around 90% of the repairs at Doctor Computer, the market could shrink as more life-proof smartphones enter the market.

“This is a niche business for us,” Michelli says. “We are a computer repair business first. But it will hurt a lot of the guys that have opened up smaller stores when the market starts to eliminate a lot of that frequency of repair.”