That said, certain things can damage all forms of fortified glass: sand, gravel, etc. Basically any thing that forms an abrasive surface with small particles.

You probably don’t have to get screen protectors if you don’t want. I wouldn’t worry about these interfering with the interface, all of the ones I’ve bought from Verizon in the past have worked great. But imagine your walking down the street, your phone falls out of your pocket/bag/hand and lands face down on concrete. A person behind you steps on it and drags the face across the concrete surface. Your phones screen is done.

Just like cases, screen protectors are for that situational incident that occurs. Ive never had a problem with dropping phones for any of my previous devices, but I just launched my Blackberry onto the parking lot ground by accident a couple of weeks ago and now the body is scratched and there is a chip in the gorilla glass screen. I’m sure if I still had my otterbox case and a screen protector on it, it would have been fine :(.