The average person today often carries around many valuable, and sometimes fragile, electronics products during their everyday routines. Smartphones, tablets, and laptops can easily cost over $500 each. Newer devices, such as fitness trackers, wireless headphones, and AR/VR headsets, are quickly gaining traction. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed; people aren’t always careful, and these expensive devices are bumped, dropped, and sometimes (when your favorite team loses a close game) even thrown.

The price that consumers are willing to pay to protect their prized electronic devices should come as no surprise. A quick internet search for smartphone cases will demonstrate that, even in that highly saturated market, consumers are still willing to pay $20 – $50 to add additional drop protection. That’s in addition to around $120 a year for insurance, as well as the indirect costs associated with plans that replace phones every few years. The market for aftermarket device protection solutions is thriving.

Some OEM’s realize that they, too, have the opportunity to capture some of this value-add for their customers by engineering device protection solutions directly into the design of new products. While not all devices need to be in the “rugged” category, most can benefit from the added durability provided by interior CONFOR™ shock pads and gaskets specifically formulated for impact protection. And with the end goal of most brands being to maintain a satisfied, brand loyal customer, it usually pays to avoid the underperforming solutions that service an attribute that is obviously highly valued by the consumer.

Aearo Technologies manufactures a variety of CONFOR™ materials to meet each device’s unique needs. These include:

To increase the impact performance of your product, design a custom solution with help from an Aearo Applications Engineer by contacting inquiries@aearotechnologies.com, or visit one of the authorized distributors for a universal application solution.