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Paul Lipscombe
December 3, 2020
Handset vendors and accessory makers are stepping up efforts to add sanitisation features to products
Covid-19 has not been too kind to smartphone sales.
In Q1 2020, Counterpoint Research reported a 13 per cent year-over-year fall in shipments, the fastest ever decline in the global smartphone market.
Yet the pandemic has not only changed the technology landscape for the foreseeable future but prompted a renewed focus on hygiene that has extended to our phones.
Horror stories about our mobiles acting as Petri dishes for infection are well documented and have been more prominent in the recent news than ever before.
Yet before Covid-19, the thought of cleaning their smartphone had never crossed the mind of many. The World Health Organization has previously cited studies indicating that COVID-19 can live for a while on surfaces and infect people, but this has not yet been officially proven.
Nonetheless, smartphone and accessory manufacturers have since stepped up their efforts to add antibacterial features to their products.
Fortunately, there are now hundreds of products on the market to help clean your mobile phone as manufacturers pivot to focus on tech hygiene.
Bigger push
Phone manufacturers are now seeking to step up their efforts to add antibacterial and other sanitisation features to their products – which they have often not had before.
Meanwhile, accessory makers already have some antibacterial products in place that will resonate with audiences in a way they may not have before 2020, while Covid-19 has prompted them to look into new ones too.
At screen protection brand PanzerGlass, UK sales manager Lee Skinner says the pandemic has led to “a huge uptick” in product sales.
“We feel the market and perceptions are changing, and antibacterial products are becoming more and more common.”
“We are more commonly aware of what precautionary measures we can take to limit risks to our health,” he says.
He adds that while carrying a hand sanitiser around a few years ago would have seemed bizarre to many people, it has now become “just another item” that we carry around for our own safety.
“We feel the market and perceptions are changing, and antibacterial products are becoming more and more common.”
Changing perceptions
And there is general agreement in the phone accessories segment that the way in which the pandemic has been reported in the media and created panic has inadvertently created unique opportunities for the sector to flourish.
Accessories firm Splash, which was established in 2016 and supplies products to EE, Vodafone, and Carphone Warehouse, is one player that has focused on hygiene. The company’s head of business development, Sam Haase, says he has seen significant changes in this area in the past half-decade.
“At the beginning, people weren’t very receptive to our products at all,” he says. “Since Covid-19 and the focus of the news on germs and bacteria, it’s been flipped on its head. Now people have become very receptive and the category is evolving.”
Haase adds that the challenge has always been to get the company’s message across to a wide audience, but this is now being achieved by itself in the pandemic.
Protection products
Companies such as PanzerGlass and Splash have developed products including screen protectors, phone covers, and sprays to limit the spread of bacteria, with each having their own methods to ensure their products are as effective as possible.
PanzerGlass carries out testing based on ISO standards and has consulted with external collaborators both in research institutes and at a regulatory consultancy that provides approvals in this area.
Splash, meanwhile, has conducted tried-and-tested experiments with third parties in laboratories to ensure the effectiveness of its products.
And with tech hygiene promising to be high on the agenda for consumers for years to come, smartphone manufacturers have also been setting about developing and emphasising hygiene more in their products.
However, CCS Insight chief of research Ben Wood doesn’t think the hygiene aspects of products are a “make or break” for consumers when considering a new device.
“Customers will always care more about the brand, the price, the camera, and the battery life of a device, but companies can use the hygiene aspect to position their devices differently against some of their rivals.”
“Customers will always care more about the brand, the price, the camera, and the battery life of a device, but companies can use the hygiene aspect to position their devices differently against some of their rivals,” he says.
Despite this, Wood says there are emerging opportunities for manufacturers, which will be looking to this new dimension for further opportunities.
“Vendors will try to minimise the number of slots and edges that are potential places where germs can reside,” he says.
“It will be in the mind of manufacturers to make sure that devices can be washed.”
Washable phones
Yet despite several new developments in the smartphone industry, there has always been a need for consumers to wash their phones in any case, says Bullitt Group senior director of applications and products marketing Tim Shepherd.
“On top of that, there are also viruses that can live on devices, and Covid-19 can potentially live on a mobile phone for around 72 hours and thrive in this environment.”
“Bacteria is living on phones that can cause people to fall quite seriously ill, like staphylococcus, E. Coli and MRSA,” he says.
“On top of that, there are also viruses that can live on devices, and Covid-19 can potentially live on a mobile phone for around 72 hours and thrive in this environment.”
Bullitt Group is the worldwide licensee of Caterpillar, which manufactures rugged mobile devices and accessories under the Cat name in more than 75 countries.
The vendor has emphasised the ability of its newest devices to be washed with soap, but Shepherd maintains that Cat devices have been washable for some time.
“This is not a new feature that we’ve been able to deliver in 2020; it is something that has been true in our range for a long while,” he says.
“All of our devices are fully waterproof, dustproof, and dirtproof, which is important considering the types of environments they’re being used in – so you’ve always needed to wash them and clean them anyway.”
And Wood says that for Bullitt, emphasising the washability of its Cat devices is a logical move.
“I think Cat is a real leading indicator as to what we will see from other phone makers over the next 12 to 18 months,” he says.
“Smaller manufacturers have to be agile and must seize these opportunities, and Cat is a great example of seeing a benefit and helping its devices stand out.”
Bullitt has since announced that from next year its Cat phones will ship with permanent exterior antibacterial protection, which the manufacturer says will give its devices a higher level of defence than the others currently on the market.
The company has worked with additive firm Addmaster to incorporate the addition of its Biomaster antimicrobial technology into the production of its smartphones.
The technology has been tested to ISO 22196 standards, an internationally recognised classification for antibacterial protection.
The solution is an additive integrated into the phone’s exterior components that inhibits the growth of microbes on its surface.
The company says that in testing, Biomaster has been seen to reduce bacterial cell replication by more than 80 per cent within 15 minutes and 99.9 per cent within 24 hours.
And Wood says other vendors are starting to see a greater need to adapt and promote hygiene aspects in their devices too.
He points to the iPhone 12’s IP68 rating, which enables submersion underwater to a depth of 6 metres for around 30 minutes, as an indicator of this developing trend.
“Washing your phone is a capability you can arguably do on the iPhone 12, but I think you will see companies being very careful and a little nervous about articulating whether you can wipe down existing phones,” he says.
His view is echoed by Shepherd, who urges consumers to check their warranties before submerging their mass-market phones in water.
“If you buy a mass-market handset and want to wash it, you have to check the warranty statement because most of the time the warranty will not support submersion in water.”
“We have already seen a move towards trying to make phones a bit more waterproof, but there has to be a high level of confidence that you provide the customer with to encourage them to wash their phone,” he says.
“If you buy a mass-market handset and want to wash it, you have to check the warranty statement because most of the time the warranty will not support submersion in water.
“If you have a Cat phone, feel free to wash it, but if you have a mass-market phone you should check your warranty before dunking it into water.”
Submerging or wiping?
Shepherd says that submerging a smartphone device is the best way to eliminate the invisible threat of germs and bacteria if it can be done without affecting the phone’s performance.
But he warns that even if antibacterial properties are added to devices, consumers still need to be aware of the separate threat from viruses.
He notes that there are fundamental differences between bacteria and viruses, meaning that viruses could still thrive even if wipes eliminate bacteria from surfaces.
“With antibacterial wipes, you can remove bacteria but a virus can still stay there – and it is not clear that antibacterial wipes can remove a virus from the surface of your device,” he says.
He adds that Bullitt has worked with epidemiologists and scientists to ensure a high level of understanding in the area.
“Our message is to keep your phone bacteria and virus-free, and you should wash your phone,” he says. “This isn’t an area where we want to make a mistake; that is why any claim we make comes with real scientific backing.”