Swiping from the edge of the screen is not always easy with a protective case on your phone, as it impedes your ability to do so. Pretty annoying problem that I haven't seen that considered in many places.
The ideal phone wouldn't need a protective case. This is a standard perpetuated by the sleek and thin aspect to flagship phones, and I personally think it's obnoxious. What's the point in having the world's thinnest smartphone if you're going to keep it in the world's thickest case all the time?
I'd prefer a phone that is built from the ground up to be secure without a case. My current phone is a Nokia Lumia 920, which can withstand some pretty substantial forces [1] without breaking and without needing a case. And sure it's thick compared to a naked iPhone or SIII, but it's thinner than those phones with a case that would allow them to withstand the same kind of impact. Why do people put up with buying a phone and needing to immediately wrap it in protective rubber and plastic to keep it from shattering? Don't put up with it anymore! Demand reliable hardware! How well it works with a case shouldn't be a determining factor.
If the battery is removable, like most android phones, you don't need the protective case. If dropped, the battery will come out and take a large force of the fall. iPhones do not do this and need the case. Then it became either trendy, needed for resale, or people don't know that their phone 'exploding' when dropped is a feature. For example, I have dropped my EVO V at least 20 times, onto concrete or tile, without issue.
If the Google Nexus 4 is meant to show the direction Google wants to take Android phones in, "most" android phones will not be robust for long. While the newest iPhone has done away with the glass back, the newest flagship phone from Google has a glass front and back and a non-removable battery.
While I agree with what you're saying, I think that a good argument in favor of cases is that when the phone finally DOES break, you're replacing the phone. But when your case gets all scratched up and broken, you just replace the case.
