With rumors of the new 3G iPhone due in June,
and the many leaked (photoshopped) images of the
supposed new iPhone, one issue that has not been
raised, and that is what about all those case
manufacturers and resellers that support Apple's
customers by designing, making and/or selling cases.
If as suggested the 2nd generation iPhone has a
makeover, then where does this leave the makers and
sellers of these cases. As a reseller I have many
links to designers and manufacturers, and currently
they are all being lead to believe there will be no
design change, but based on Apple's past track
record, it is almost certain that the iPhone will be
different in some way. This leads me to the next
issue, and that is of environmental issues. If the
iPhone is different in anyway and the current crop of
leather, silicon and plastic cases do not fit the new
style, what will happen to the thousands of cases sat
on dealers shelves, distributer warehouses and
manufacturers factories? Whilst there will be a
continued demand for cases etc. for the 1st
generation iPhone, these will be restricted to
current owners looking for something new/better, and
owners of second user iPhones wanting a case. As a
result will these large numbers of cases be destine
for the scrap heap, or will they be recycled? With
Apple having such a bad press in the past over its
use of none re-usable materials, and environmentally
unfriendly processes, you would have thought Apple
would have at least advised these third party
companies to scale back on their production, but
based on my own current experience, I can say hand on
hart that that Apple have not done this. They may
have tipped of some of the bigger players, and in
particularly those manufacturers that resale via the
Apple stores, but they certainly haven't at time of
writing this article advised the smaller or new
start-ups of any design changes.
Lets hope that for the environments sake that the
design is unchanged, and that the current stock-pile
of cases will continue to sale.
Tags: iPhone Cases, Environment
