Mobile phone insurance providers do not expect an influx of fraudulent claims following the launch of the iPhone 5C and 5S.
Apple claimed to have sold nine million iPhone during the first weekend of sales but Apple analyst Piper Jaffray told reporters that sales of 5.5 million were more accurate, adding that a lot of iPhone were bought by wireless carriers.
Insurance experts agree that the latest versions are not as significant as the ones that preceded it but this could change as the iPhone 4 becomes increasingly dated.
Heath Amber, managing director of Millennium Underwriting Agencies, said there was always a chance a policyholder will make a fraudulent claim on a mobile phone in a bid to get a newer version but he does not anticipate this will be the case with the iPhone 5C and 5S.
”With the introduction of the latest iPhone we do not expect to see too many claims as the change from the previous version to the latest is not that significant. As the iPhone 4 gets a little older there may be a spate of claims for people looking to upgrade to the latest version or waiting on the next generation of advancement in technology.”
RiskInsure, which owns PhoneInsure, has similar views: “Not since the iPhone 4 launch has mobile phone insurance of that kind been a problem,” John O’Sullivan, general manager at Risk Insure, Telco, told Insurance Business. “Initially, iPhone customers were huge fans of the handset – they had to have the latest one – but over the last year that has changed. Customers are quite happy to have an Android replacement handset if there are issues with the retailer.”
O’Sullivan added that PhoneInsure sells as many policies for smartphones operating an Android device as it does for iPhones.
However, credit reporting analysts Dunn & Bradsheet warned there will be a surge in false customer applications. It found a 131% per cent increase in ‘high risk’ phone applications.
