EngadgetMobile has a short item about the unfortunate result of dropping Blackberry's new Bold smartphone from a height of just 2 feet. See story and reader postings at:

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/08/17/blackberry-bold-doesnt-handle-pavement-well/

The issue of durability and toughness of wireless handsets is important for everyone, but perhaps especially for people with visual or motor function limitations who may have a greater likelihood of dropping things. Indeed, durability and toughness was identified as an important device feature by 62% of the respodents to our Survey of User Needs. It was the second most frequently identifed feature after long battery life.

But fragility may not be unique to devices with touch screens, as one reader of the story on EngadgetMobile noted, his own phone would not look to good after being dropped 2 feet onto the pavement. Nor did my simple flip phone after it fell off my lap onto the pavement while exiting my car.

Perhaps the solution, as EngadgetMobile suggests, is to get skin or a case for your device.