[sturgill]

Thinking on this, I don’t remember cases for the original Blackberry or Palm devices. I never cased a flip phone. Or one of my candy bar phones.

Apple gets really excited to say “thinnest iPhone ever” — but then we (or at least I) slap an Otterbox on it because I want the thing to last.

At the end of the day, it’s just for marketing purposes. No one wants to buy a Jitterbug phone. People want to buy sleek and sexy. And then they surround it in rubber bumpers.

It’s really pretty stupid all the way around. I don’t think Apple would sell as many phones if they shipped with a built-in bumper. Even to people like me who require that their pocket computers be protected...

[kalleboo]

I did managed to crack the screens on both my Palm IIIx and a Nokia N73, so despite their bulky plastic cases, they weren't impervious (since the smartphone era I've also cracked only two screens - iPhone 5S and 11 Pro Max, only the former was caseless)