Apple apparently bans screen protectors. Really?


This morning iLounge broke a story that Apple is telling vendors it will ban screen protector products from its retail and online stores. Furthermore, the company will ban products that contain screen protectors. This apparently will include not only popular screen protection products, but products such as many iPhone cases that include screen protectors. The changes reportedly go into effect in May.

"In communications with vendors that have been ongoing for 'some time now,' according to one company, Apple has said that it will remove both film-only solutions from its stores, as well as any case or other accessory that includes film protection as part of its package, such as cases that include film screen protectors."

iLounge reached out to case vendors and they reportedly are aware of the policy, thus confirming it, but had no comment.

This is somewhat shocking and we figured something would transpire during the day, but the story stands. Apple certainly has the right to choose which products to put on its shelves. That said, if this new policy is true, it affects a lot of products that have been on the shelves for years. It would be one thing if affected products were poor sellers, but as iLounge noted, screen protectors are among the top accessories on Apple's online store. This, following other apparent flip-flops within the app store, certainly should give pause to anyone supporting the Apple sub-culture with third-party products. Apple's whims may be bad for your livelihood.

For customers, this probably isn't too big of a deal. Other national retail outlets like Best Buy and AT&T stores (for now?) carry various iPhone and iPod accessories. Online certainly offers greater selections and better prices. In terms of walking into a store, however, Apple retail displays the biggest selection of legit products. For iPhone cases, adding in a screen protector has been a means of adding product value to at times pretty pricy pieces of plastic. We would expect that case makers will stop providing screen protectors with their products to comply, and hopefully prices will reflect that.

We'll have to see how this all hashes out before getting in a complete twist. The speculation is Apple feels its products don't need protection. We would strongly beg to differ with ample evidence to the contrary -- unless Apple Care starts covering screen scratches.

Apple bans protective screen film from Apple Store