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The iPhone’s all-metal casing isn't always a good match for its much vaunted all-glass display. We recently found this out the hard way.

Since we obtained an iPhone last summer, we've sometimes found it difficult to maintain a good grip on it. In fact, our iPhone recently slipped out of our hands (not for the first time, of course) recently, only to unfortunately land on concrete. Although it was the iPhone’s back that hit the ground—a safe area for the screen, it would seem—its display became heavily cracked anyway.

Turns out, not surprisingly, Apple's warranty doesn't cover accidental damage, even to the display, which, as all of you know, is made of glass. Granted, the iPhone's screen is tough, but it is glass, nonetheless.

So you'd think Apple could be a little more accommodating to those who've had their iPhone's screens become damaged due to an accident. The genius we met with at the Apple Store's Genius bar gave us two not very attractive options: turn in our broken iPhone and pay $250 to receive a refurbished unit as a replacement or buy a brand new iPhone outright. Why not have an option to pay a lower fee to just fix the screen?

At CTIA last week, another smartphone vendor we spoke to (one of Apple competitors, mind you) speculated our screen may have became damaged because of the iPhone's non-removable battery. They asserted a drop like the one that broke our iPhone to one of their phones would have caused the battery to pop out, dissipating much of the force from the impact away from the screen.

Since the iPhone's battery had nowhere to go, the full brunt of the impact may have been transmitted from the back of the iPhone all the way up to its display, resulting in the large amount of damage it received.

One positive thing that came out of this ordeal: We were on vacation when the iPhone became damaged and had fly out to CTIA the day after getting back. For two weeks now, the iPhone with the broken screen has continued to work flawlessly.

How many iPhones have broken because they accidentally slipped out of their owners' hands? I don't know what the figures are, but it certainly would be interesting to find out.