Apple AAPL, -1.59% earns almost as much from its customers’ butterfingers as it does through corporate tax loopholes.

The company charges as much as $229 to replace an iPhone 5 with a broken screen. That’s more than the $200 price of the device with a two-year contract, and more than a third of the $650 cost of the phone without a contract. Select Apple stores offer the option of a $149 repair. And for those who paid $99 for AppleCare insurance, the replacement is just $49. (An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on repair prices.)

Why iPhone repair costs have soared

The replacement components for the iPhone 5 are much more expensive than similar parts for prior models — so expensive in fact that many independent repair services cannot compete. “Due to the high cost of replacement parts, we are not yet offering iPhone 5 repairs,” according to a statement on ComputerOverhauls.com, an online repair shop. “Currently, the Apple Store is the least expensive option for repairing damaged iPhone 5s.” Other services charge as much as $250 for the repair.

The iPhone-repair business is lucrative. Nearly one-third of iPhone users damaged their devices during 2012, according to a recent study by gadget insurer SquareTrade, which has a vested interest in clumsy customers. Repairs have cost consumers nearly $6 billion since the iPhone was launched in 2007. What’s more, iPhones get abused more than iPads, only 10% of which were damaged, it says.

Replacing an iPhone 5 screen takes 5 to 10 minutes and is easier to fix than the 4, says AJ Forsythe, founder of iCracked, a repair service for iGadgets. The iPhone 4 screen has 27 screws and three layers, he says: a front panel, a digitizer with electrodes that can sense when someone is touching the screen, and a liquid crystal display that creates the image. The iPhone 5 has five screws and two layers.

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Despite this, iCracked — an independent firm that has technicians across the U.S. — charges half as much to fix an iPhone 4S screen ($79 to $99) as to fix an iPhone 5 ($169 to $199). Why? There is a tight control on iPhone 5 components in the market, Forsythe says. “Market forces determine the price,” he says. “Apple sells about 300,000 iPhones a day and, as the repair market grows, prices will get lower.”

“Apple controls everything from the manufacturing to the gear for the iPhone 5,” says Jeff Haynes, editor at deal site TechBargains.com. As the iPhone 5 is larger than the 4, the cost for replacement parts rises, he says. “Apple is trying to get people to sign up for Apple Care for $99 and to rely on their services at the Apple store,” he says, “If you don’t, that cracked screen could cost you at least $230.”

Thanks to do-it-yourself kits, it’s possible to replace the screen on an iPhone 4 for less than a quarter of that price. Adam Carey, a New York-based mobile development consultant, bought a DIY kit on Amazon.com for $25 and followed instructions on iFixit.com, an online repair manual. The procedure took him two hours. “It’s not like snapping on a cover,” he says. “It’s like performing surgery. You need pretty steady hands.”

See also: Consumers sitting on $9 billion in old iPhones