The day when my mobile broke down

It all began when a mosquito bit me the other day, and I had this irresistable urge to scratch. Eventually it led to a small wound and that later developed an infection. So, now, for a few days, I have been going to Kapil uncle's place for its medication. Yesterday was my second day, and since I was on a shirt, I had to take it off, my wound being right next to right shoulder. I ended up putting my mobile on floor. When medication finished, I stood up to put on my shirt, and then it happened, "crack", a small but definite sound of plastic board cracking. Apparently my knee was over it, with my full weight of over 70 Kilos now. Now Jine has had his plastic screen of mobile cracked, and my mobile is just a day older than his, I thought, for a second before looking into the mobile, the upper screen may have cracked. And I was going to New Road, AND I have always wanted a black cover anyway, for that second, I thought it was time to buy a new cover. Then the horror struck -- I glanced over the phone. It had this funny display,  looked strikingly similar to a pair of lips tightly closed together across a wide smile. I didn't believe what I saw. Maybe the stress of my weight bent it to discolor and restart would solve it... off it goes, and --WOW.. the pattern stays even when it is off!! Now panic starts to take over. I still had a computer to check out, turns out it is a display problem, and I start moving towards New Road... PRT was waiting... My mind was to get it fixed and get it sold! Didn't care how much it would fetch, but I wanted to get rid of if, at any cost. OK now it need a careful assessment of situation, a definite crack on LCD, and a pair of tight lips. The reality slowly hit -- what if LCD is not available? What if it is very expensive? The very thoughts are scary... scary enough to drive you crazy. So I get to New Road, and start my hunting.

 

There are so many mobile repair centers around New Road. at least 50 of them. So I choose one and ask the price  -- 2200 bucks for a duplicate one. Few more and they shake their head - one even priced it 3-4 thousand!! It is kind of relief, at least it is available, though a bit expensive. almost half the price of the set itself. And a variation of price -- if people don't know anyone, its so easy to take you on a hike.  after about two hours of hunting, and a considerable effort from Prabin dai (He would be my cousin's co-worker), I managed a piece at Rs 2200, for an original Nokia replacement.

 

What surprised me the most from this ordeal was the availability of the screen. I started out thinking how common would it be to break the screen of mobile. Lets do some maths, there are about, I don't know, 100000 lines in ktm? Okay, lets make it 200000, about 100000 in 98412xxxxx series and roughly same figure in 98510xxxxx series. Mind, these are distributed throughout Bagmati zone, as I understand it. But lets say about 90% of them is within valley and its periphery. There should be at least 100 different models of mobile sets, and no one can put a figure on how many sets of a model is in use. Lets say roughly 10% of the total set in use is Nokia 6610, the model I own. That would make roughly 18000 sets. A considerable figure, I will agree that. But the shopkeeper told earlier on the phone that he is almost out of stock. Now, with that, I'd assume he has just a piece or two left. When I got to the shop, he says he has 10 pcs left!! And he was out of stock. He is expecting a new consignment today -- who knows, may be 100 pcs, may be 50 pcs. May be just 10 pcs. But judging by what he said, I'd bet on above 50 pcs. Their talks make me think they get at least one consignment a week. Now that is 50 pcs a week for a shop. That would average out a mobile's LCD life for 360 weeks...  A little more than 4 years. But assuming there are around 50 repair centers around the valley with similar businesses, the average life comes down to more like 7.2 weeks!! Of course I wouldn't bet that there are 50 businesses with similar volumes but I think I can count up to 10 places I went yesterday. And that too, in the range of half of Pako road. Even with 10 businesses doing 50 LCD's a week, average lifespan of 6610 LCD seems to be 36 weeks, half a year.  Now, wouldn't you think that it is a little too much? Isn't 6610 a little too prone to danger? Now, so far I have talked about only the Genuine Nokia Spare part. Judging by the price difference, I'd bet there are equal amount of duplicate LCD screens in the market. Now you do the maths, and figure out a final figure. Mind, there are more than 10 mobile repair centers in the valley. Well, it does give some insight to shoppers out there, doesn't it?

 

Well, my ordeal is over and my initial instincts to throw it away has jumped out of window. After all, all that was done on it was opening of 6 screws and a tweezer work to remove connector. No solder required. I guess the new one would also be similar handiwork, and will not be much more different, except that it'd be done in a better environment. And I am happy with the end result. So I will keep it for a while.

 

What happened to the broken LCD screen? Well, soon after that replacement, a couple of Electronic De-Engineers got hold of it and started playing with it. The result now looks more like graph of wide histeresis loop, rather than a pair of neat, nice and tightly closed lips across a wide smile. Guess every engineering starts with some de-engineering!!