Design Thrills Apple'sPartners, but Will CostUsers

The iPhone 5 has plenty of
new features to keep Apple
fans happy. But there is one
feature Apple unveiled on
Wednesday that is likely to
annoy many: a new connector on the phone's base.

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The Lightning port, as Apple
calls it, is smaller and shaped
differently from the old one,
instantly rendering obsolete
the millions of spare charging
cords, docks and iPhone-ready clock radios that its customers
have accumulated over the
years.

While irritating to some, the
Lightning connector could be a
boon to the hundreds of
companies that sell accessories
for iPhones and iPads. "Apple is testing the patience
of its fans," said Tero
Kuittinen, an independent
analyst and a vice president of
Alekstra, a company that
helps customers manage cellphone costs.

"A lot of Apple fans have a
lot of different accessories and
use the old systems, so this is
going to be a fairly expensive
shift for a lot of them," Mr.
Kuittinen said. Makers of iPhone accessories are likely to
be ecstatic, he added. Apple, which is selling Lightning cables and $30
adapters that will connect the
new phones to many but not
all older accessories, is, of
course, poised to profit from the design change as well.

Apple said the smaller
connector allowed it to make
the phone thinner and use
space inside the device more
efficiently. Accessories for Apple
products are already a vast
and lucrative business. In the
last year, iPad, iPod and iPhone
add-ons, including speakers,
cases and power chargers, generated $2 billion in sales in
the United States alone,
according to the NPD Group, a
research firm.



To stay on top of the market
and avoid building products
that will soon be out of date,
accessory makers have to
watch Apple as attentively as
any technology journalist or analyst. Apple, which is
known for its culture of
secrecy, generally keeps
accessory makers in the dark
before it unveils its new
hardware. The companies rely instead on leaks from Apple's
manufacturing partners in
Asia, or on rumors about the
devices that surface on Apple-
focused blogs.
On the day of
an Apple hardware announcement, they watch reports of the event and wait for data sheets to come from Apple with details on the
devices before they crank up
manufacturing in China. Griffin Technology, a company in Nashville that makes Apple accessories, said
that moments after Apple
introduced the iPhone 5, its
employees were making final design tweaks in its prototyping shop, where 3-D printers turn out mock-ups of future products. Many Griffin employees had already
traveled to China from the United States to be there
when the iPhone 5 was
introduced. "Kind of like everyone else,
we're at the same starting line
in the race to the peg," said
Mark Rowan, Griffin's
president.

Similarly, employees of
Incase, a maker of iPhone
cases based in San Francisco,
crowded into a conference
room to watch online reports
of Apple's presentation, said Dave Gatto, the chief
executive. Employees in China
were waiting at factories for
final design specifications so
they could start making cases. Occasionally a rare few in the
business get a peek at an
Apple prototype, according to
Jeremy Horwitz, editor in
chief of iLounge, a Web site
that reviews Apple accessories.
Much as some software developers get to use a new Apple product in
advance so they can have
software ready to show off
on Apple's stage, he said, some accessory makers have
had access to Apple devices
before their unveiling. Mr.
Horwitz said these devices
were typically locked down
to prevent theft or leaks.



Some companies take
unsanctioned routes to get
ahead of the game. Hard
Candy Cases, a case maker,
sent iPhone 5 cases to
journalists before Apple even introduced the phone.

Tim Hickman, chief executive of
the company, said
manufacturers in Shenzhen,
where his cases are made, sent
around design information for unreleased iPhones to attract
case makers like himself. "The factories have gone
from, 'Shhh, hey, buddy, look
at what I have for you,' to
making it part of their
presentation," he said. Mr. Hickman said he did not
buy information from leakers
in Asia. Instead, he said, he
made a deal with a factory
that had told him it could
make cases for the iPhone 5 and asked him to send designs
that it would then modify to
fit the new phone. He said his
iPhone 5 cases for sale to
customers would arrive in the
United States in about three days. IHome, a New York company
that is one of the biggest
makers of iPhone clock radios
and other Apple audio
accessories, tries to plan for
Apple's announcements but does not assume anything is
fact until the company unveils
its new hardware, said Ezra S.
Ashkenazi, its chief executive.
He called the Lightning change
"a unique circumstance" because it was the first time
Apple had changed the
connector since it was
introduced.
There are already iPhone clock
radios made by iHome and
other companies in hotel
rooms around the world.
Kathy Duffy, director of
public relations for the Marriott hotels in New York,
said that if many patrons
seemed to be getting the
iPhone 5, the company would
probably stock up on
adapters or buy new accessories. "We'd have to
evaluate it and see what the
demand is," she said. Roy Furchgott contributed
reporting.


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