[daemontus]

I don't have any scientific data for this, but my anecdotal experience is that the actual damage comes from the way the phones are used, not necessarily the absolute charge count. Here me out...

- A phone that is used a lot in the car as GPS is often charged/discharged continuously, often for hours.

- Furthermore, this often happens in very hot or cold conditions which are bad for battery charging.

- A lot of people seem to live with the perpetual 5% of battery, or generally don't care about properly charging the device. This is also terrible for longevity.

- There are other reasons why you may want to constantly charge/discharge your phone (e.g. you are making Android apps, or it's the phone where people call your place of business, etc.).

So, just to make myself clear: I completely agree that on average, batteries should last for a long time. But in practice, people often have irregular activities which appear negligible on average ("it's just a few charge cycles"), but end up damaging the battery more than regular prolonged use. But again: I'd very much like more hard data on this :)