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Considering open up a call phone shop in PR-I have a question

Last activity 22 September 2010 by Gary

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brodaiga

How popular is the iPhone in Puerto Rico/San Juan?

I am thinking about opening up a cell phone repair shop for iphones and want to know how popular they are there. Out of ten cell phones, how many would you say is an iphone?

brodaiga

nobody?

Gary

Not me. :) My daughter has one, that's the only iPhone I know of.
As far as I understand only AT&T have them and there are many other cell phone providers around..

I haven't seen any cell phone repair shop here on the island. I never had to have a cellphone repaired. I mean, you get a phone, use it two years and get a new one. Are iPhones so bad that they need repair?

GreggK

No offense but I think if you go to PR and try to set up a business repairing iphones you might end up like the Maytag repairman, very lonely. I'm with Gary, I've never seen a phone repair service around here. People get new ones every couple of years or they pay a couple extra dollars a month for a repair/replacement warranty. My guess is the reason there aren't any repair shops is that there is no demand. Technology, phone service, internet service and computer use lags behind the US. Considerably in some places.

Gary

GreggK wrote:

Technology, phone service, internet service and computer use lags behind the US. Considerably in some places.


Agreed for computer/internet but it seems like everybody has at least one cell phone and is using it all the time. At least 50% of the car drivers I see are yakking or texting..

jasonb

Brodaiga,

I have had a slightly different experience.  The iPhones are very popular here (I have one), and they are certainly less "disposable" than the previous cell phones offered in the past, as the replacement iPhone 3G/S models (and high-end Blackberries) from AT&T range from $600-$750 to replace a phone if it is damaged or lost.

Per GreggK, I feel from what I have heard anecdotally that many people (esp. due to the high replacement cost) choose to purchase insurance as part of their monthly contract for those phones.

I know my wife has used a repair shop to replace the keypad on her Blackberry after she spilled coffee on it, and they only charged her about $20 to fix it, which seemed pretty low to me.  So those types of businesses do exist, but I'm not sure what the "viability" of starting one up from scratch would be, but if you are going to do it, I would recommend a very high-traffic area, maybe a kiosk in Plaza Las Americas or Carolina mall or something along those lines.

And Gary, where IS that rule written down that you have to be on the phone while you drive?  I would say more like 80%!

Gary

jasonb wrote:

And Gary, where IS that rule written down that you have to be on the phone while you drive?  I would say more like 80%!


You might be right, I was trying to be nice. :)
It really annoys the ^%&*^$ out of me. Many people here are driving like idiots and that gets a lot worse when they're using their ^&&&^%#% cell phone while driving..

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