I disagree with the notion that just because they break that I'm "doing it wrong". Please listen to the customer. Rather, I'd say that they're just not rugged enough for my (consumer) standard of use, which needs to be more rugged than office use. I have legitimate needs to engage in sports while devices are plugged in and accessible. Other consumers get stuff bitten by children and pets, stepped on, tangled, and caught in things. That's consumer life. It should be accepted as a valid design problem to make a product rugged enough to tolerate that. Often a simple change in housings and shrouds would deal with this problem inexpensively -- in the case of USB, all it would take is for the shroud to be a part of the standard itself, and the housing it mates with to hold and relieve strain on the shroud.

What about IEC cables? They're super rugged and virtually impossible to break. Proportionally downsizing that connector to be small enough would likely maintain the same level of ruggedness while being small.

I'd appreciate if people don't downvote me just because you disagree with me. That discourages useful discussion on HN. I downvote trolls and people who abuse the system with spam, not people I disagree with.