LCD (not surface glass) damage

So this weekend I was taking my phone (16G 1G iPhone) out of my pocket and it slipped and fell approximately 3 feet onto a hard floor. The phone is in a griffin reflect hard case (covers the whole phone minus the screen) and landed on it's back and came to rest face up. As it looked harmless enough, and I had seen other phones take far more punishment and be fine, I picked it up and expected everything to be fine (also worth noting that this is the only time I can recall ever dropping the phone). However, When I activated the screen bands/pixels of color were seperating out and approximately the whole left half of the screen was white, pixellated, or otherwise non-functional. There was a sharp divider between that and the right side which worked fine. Touch still worked over the whole screen and the phone was fully functional, assuming you could guess what was under the left part of the screen. This appears to be damage to the LCD itself.

Anyways, this sure seems like some kind of defect to me, since a relatively small jolt which caused zero physical damage to the phone exterior should not total the LCD in this way. I have also personally seen other people with iPhones subject them to much larger impacts than my case with no ill effects. I'm planning on going to the Apple store tomorrow regardless to get a replacement (I need it for work), it's just a matter who is doing the replacing. Anyone else have any input or recommendations?