Have you ever had the misfortune of losing your cell phone? Well, a new study claims that every 3.5 seconds that go by, a person in the United States loses their cell phone. That prospect doesn’t seem shocking, but what’s surprising is most of those lost phones turn up in coffee shops. Yes, you heard correct.
Believe it or not, these brain-farts add up to a whopping $30 billion in annual losses, says the report conducted by mobile security company LookOut. Besides places you pick up a cup of Joe, other common spots people lose their handsets are bars and offices. To no ones surprise, most misplaced phones occur late night, with 67 percent of handsets found in between the hours 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.
This information is averaged through out the country, so results vary when it comes to specific locations. For example, the study found people in New York City lose most of their phones in fast-food restaurants.
Luckily, this problem is being addressed by large technology companies like Apple, with the company’s super efficient Find My iPhone application. I set this up for my iPhone 4s, and it’s great, it not only shows you where your phone is on the map, but it allows you to remote lock or wipe your handset in the event it’s lost. This application also works for the iPad and MacBook line of laptops. Checkout the top ten lists from the LookOut study below.
The top 10 places for lost or stolen phones:
- Coffee Shop
- Bar
- Office
- Restaurant
- Apartment & condo
- Grocery store
- Gas station
- Residential homes
- Pharmacy or drug store
- Park
The top 10 cities for phone loss:
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Oakland
- Long Beach
- Newark
- Detroit
- Cleveland
- Baltimore
- New York
- Boston
Do any of these findings surprise you?
SmartMoney; photograph by Jorge Quinteros