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There is of course an element of luck involved. I had my first one for 18 months without problems, and I did the same with it that I did with the gold edition. I used in bed, in the bath, travelling, in the back garden, in the conservatory, on airplanes, buses, trains, etc. I was reasonably careful with it, and always always kept it in the case (except when I broke it!). The screen break on that one was completely my fault. I take it out of the case to put it into an Aquapac bag when I take it into the bath, and I'd been lazy and had not taken it back out of the Aquapac bag afterwards, instead I'd laid it on the bed, and for some reason completely forgotten about it. In the morning the screen was broken - it seems I'd kicked it out of the bed overnight and the screen had hit the corner of furniture. There's nothing that could have been done to prevent that on Bookeen's side. So 18 months of good luck, and then 6 months of bad luck. Please don't make the logical fallacy that because yours hasn't broken I must be hitting mine with hammers!
However my point is that both the plastic case the device comes in (the shell) and the leather/pleather cases that Bookeen sell offer little or no protection. The plastic shell is the culprit, in my opinion, as no matter how good a case is, the plastic shell doesn't do anything. It all made sense when I saw the Nook and Sony Readers yesterday, they were in shells that would not have caused a screen to break in the way my last 2 breaks were.
As to people saying it's my own fault, I don't accept that at all. Bookeen need to make it clear that their case, and the aftermarket case that they sold (it's now included with the Gold package) do not protect the device. That it is a very thin, very fragile piece of glass, and the plastic shell will not protect the screen from even a moderate amount of torsion or pressure. Of course it will not break by itself, the user needs to apply pressure for this to happen.
But is carrying it, in a case, in your pocket "misuse"? Should not the case protect it from this? I'm not suggesting that it should protect it if I fall over and land on the case or anything like that... I put the device in the pocket of my shorts (they're cargo shorts I wear over here, 9 pockets, two of them are very large and can hold the device with plenty of room to spare) got in the car and went to a diner for lunch. I left the diner, and decided to sit at a square and read... and it was broken. Having now thought about it in detail I'm now certain it must have been torsion that caused it - pressure on the device on one of the corners. In order for the device to be "fit for purpose" then the shell should offer enough protection in order to ensure that cannot happen.
As far as broken devices go.... I've owned a number over the years. Walkmans, mp3 players, mobile phones etc etc etc. And I've yet to damage or break any, ever, with the exception of Gen3s.
Anyway, the moral of the story is still a warning to the rest of the forum.
Please be careful if you already own a Gen3!
And if you're thinking of buying one... please be aware that you need to treat it like a sheet of thin glass... the case does not change this.
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