Were you in the market for an iPad 5 case? Probably not, seeing as Apple has yet to even announce the device. However, that hasn’t stopped case maker Gumdrop from creating 15,000 cases for the unannounced product, which it thinks will be unveiled at next week’s WWDC.
Gumdrop has launched three different cases for the iPad 5 today, called the the Drop Tech Series, the Drop Tech Designer Series, and the Bounce Skin, which can each be purchased now on the company’s website. All of the cases are designed on rumored iPad 5 specs, such as a smaller more iPad mini like body.
Gumdrop has taking risks like this in the past. The company produced iPad mini cases before the product was ever announced and even shipped them out to reviewers the day before the unveiling of the product. The cases turned out to be a perfect fit.
Gumdrop’s CEO Tim Hickman hasn’t always been right, however. At his other case company, Hard Candy Cases, his team spent $50,000 on producing an iPhone 5 case based on rumors of the design. The phone’s real design ended up being entirely different.
Regarding Hickman’s decision to start heavily producing iPad 5 cases, he told 9to5Mac, “business has been good to Gumdrop and we can afford to take a pretty big bet, because the pay off is massive if we are right.”
It’s an interesting bet for Gumdrop. The company itself thinks that the iPad 5 will be announced at WWDC, although the majority of reports have predicted that Apple won’t reveal any new iOS devices at the event. Even if the iPad 5 isn’t shown off at WWDC, hopefully the over 15,000 cases being made still fit the device when it is eventually released, for Gumdrop’s sake.
