Smartphone kill-switch tech could save consumers $2.5 Billion

[Hum]

While gluing it to your hand may be one surefire way to prevent your mobile phone being stolen, surely the most effective anti-theft strategy would be to make the device as unattractive as possible to potential thieves.

By this we don?t mean smearing your phone in a foul-smelling substance. We?re talking about the kill switch ? technology that allows a stolen phone to be rendered useless from a remote location by the phone?s owner or carrier.

If all handsets had the technology built in, the market for stolen phones would quickly evaporate, according to Creighton University statistics professor William Duckworth. And if that happened, US consumers could save themselves billions of dollars a year in replacing nabbed devices and spending out on pricey insurance policies.

In research published over the weekend, Duckworth estimates Americans spend around $500 million on replacing stolen handsets, and four times that on insurance when they purchase a new phone.

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[jerzdawg]

Doesnt Verizon already do this?  Last I heard if the owner reports the phone stolen then Verizon puts the ESN # on a blacklist which cannot be activated on their network.