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Apple bans screen protector films for iPhones, iPods, Macs (oh my!)

Categories: Accessories, Apple, iPhone, Rumors
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 12:25 PM

Say you’re a world-renowned consumer electronics maker and you’ve got more gadgets running around the world than the US has citizens. You’d probably welcome the glut of protective cases and screen protecting films that accessory makers are selling to protect the “shininess” of your devices. Well, Apple doesn’t follow traditional lines business practices. To prove that point, Apple is reportedly planning to completely ban the sale of screen protection film solutions from its stores.

The report comes from iLounge, which claims that Apple is preparing a shift in sales policy that would block accessory manufacturers from selling any iPhone, iPod, Mac, or iPad accessory that has anything to do with those scratch-fighting plastic films. The ban will exclude all types of screen films – clear, anti-glare, mirrored – regardless of whether they’re protective films or just cosmetic/decorative.

What gives? That’s really anyone’s guess. Only Steve Jobs knows for sure why Apple doesn’t want to have their iPhones protected from scratches and nicks. One possibility, as iLounge posits, could be that Apple wants to boost awareness for the durability of their devices. We really don’t think that’s the case, because, aside from the iPhone’s fairly scratch-resistant glass touchscreen, there’s really nothing keeping an errant key or paperclip from scratching the hell out of our MacBook Pro or the backside of our iPhone 3GS.

Whatever the case (no pun intended), we have to wonder how this move will affect accessory makers in Apple’s online and brick-and-mortar stores. Looks like Amazon.com and eBay.com are going to get a boost in traffic soon!

[Via: iLounge]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • saltorio

    Probably are going to blame such covers and protectors for overheating of hardware.

    Won’t be surprised if Apple bans all cases (except those made by themselves, of course) in the near future.

    Ridiculous!