In today's world, portable devices have become ubiquitous and often indispensable to our work and personal life. A main convenience is that they are often small and light devices that are easy to hold in a hand, carry in a holster, purse or pocket or otherwise easily transportable. These characteristics of portable devices make them convenient for a user to take wherever they go. Examples of such portable devices include cellular phones, smart phones, personal data assistants, electronic media players, notebook computers, netbook computers, tablet computers, barcode scanners, cameras, video cameras, pagers, portable video game consoles, video game controllers and the like.
People often carry around many types of portable electronic devices. For example, a user may carry a cellular or smart phone, a personal data assistant (PDA) and an audio (e.g. mp3) player. These portable devices are sometimes vitally important to the user as they often contain data that is related to the user's work and personal life. The data may be publicly available to all (e.g., mp3, downloaded images) as well as private data that may be difficult or nearly impossible to replace (e.g., photographs, passwords, private telephone numbers).
While the size and weight of portable devices make them convenient to carry around, these characteristics often make them more susceptible to damage and loss. For example, one type of portable device is a cellular phone. At least one report claims 1 out of 3 cellular phones are damaged or lost in the first year of ownership. Damage may occur when a cellular phone experiences an uncontrolled impact with a hard surface or even become submerged in a liquid. With the number of cellular phones in use exceeding several billion and repairs typically exceeding $25, the costs of damage and loss of cellular phones amounts to billions of dollars per year.