Services specialize in iPod repair

by Robin Mohr

Photo by Alison Yin | Frank Walburg, proprietor of iSick Bay in California, uses a jeweler’s loop to inspect a broken iPod.

In the competitive world of iPod repairmen, Frank Walburg has found a niche: “The thing I’m really known for is water immersion,” says the 39-year-old Santa Rosa, Calif., entrepreneur, who’s rescued scores of drowned music players, cell phones, digital cameras and other gadgets since starting his repair business, iSick Bay, in 2005.

Customers seek his services when they've run their devices through the wash, dropped them in the toilet or taken them for a swim. Once, a chef, bending over for a taste, watched as his iPod dove into a pot of soup.

"The circumstances on the client's side are always amusing," notes Walburg, who receives between 18 to 25 broken contraptions a week from customers who find him on the Internet or by word of mouth.

Even as other sectors of the economy take a nosedive, the repair industry that's sprung up to service broken MP3 players, cell phones and laptops is minting entrepreneurs by the dozens.