Edible Apple

An interesting little expose into the behind the scenes happenings at InCase ahead of the iPhone 5 announcement:

Now, gathered in one of the company’s conference rooms at its headquarters in San Francisco, the team was taking in the details coming in from the nearby launch event and trying to figure out how they would impact the cases they’ll be making for the iPhone 5. “There’s the connector and speakers,” someone said. “Where’s the headphone” jack? “Is it two speakers in the bottom instead of one microphone,” asks iPad and MacBook product manager Tim Ahn.

For the design team, the key things to consider were how to ensure that the cases don’t affect the way the iPhone 5’s camera and flash work, and that users are able to access all of the device’s ports. At the same time, they needed to be sure that Apple’s new EarPod headphones, as well as Incase’s own headphones, and that of third-party manufacturers, fit properly. And, the cases need to stylishly accommodate Apple’s new Lightning 9-pin connector, a significant change from the 30-pin connector every iPhone, iPad, and iPod dating back to 2002 has used.

The idea for Incase is to get as much data on the iPhone 5 as possible and then spring into action. A big part of that was finding out the specs for the new device so that the design and manufacturing teams could adapt the prototypes they’d crafted. “We’ll take all those style concepts that we vetted on the [iPhone] 4 and change the CAD designs to…fit the [iPhone] 5 from the information we know today,” Gatto said. “And then that information will b used to change the tools to create a product that’s sized for the 5. And that can take weeks.”

Check out the full scoop over at CNET.