Quality iPad Pro Cases: Are We Finished Buying Junk Yet?

With the coming release of Apple's newest addition to the iPad family of tablet computers, the iPad Pro, we can expect an onslaught of calls from potential customers with questions about our cases, sleeves and bags. Which is a good thing. We hope people will search out quality iPad Pro cases for what is a technological tour de force.

I used take a lot of phone calls and answer a lot of emails from customers who purchased low to mid priced iPad cases. Not neccessarily cheap or bad looking, just not what you would consider quality iPad cases. They were frustrated and were looking for something better. I was happy to show them.
In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Robert Pirsig's seminal road trip tale, his main character is a man driven to the point of madness by trying to define what is quality. It's a deep thing, completely subjective and relative to most people.

I'm sure the people who made all those iPads cases I mentioned above thought that they were making something of quality. Does anybody really go to work everyday and think, "Awesome, I'm going to make some junk today! Real crap. Oh my God this stuff is garbage! Can't wait to put more of it into the world!"

But each and every one of us has brought something at some point in our life that would fall into the junk, crap, and or garbage category if we were asked to describe it. Did we make that purchase knowing the product was "less than"? Or did we make that purchase thinking the product was "good quality" only to have it fall apart, break or somehow not meet our expectations?

Quality iPad Cases for $10, Really?

Recently a friend of mine asked what I thought of some "quality iPad Pro cases" she saw on ebay. They were Buy It Now offers for cases shipped to her door from China, for $10 a piece. "The shipping cost more than the case", I informed her. "But they're so pretty", she replied. She ordered both. These cases were the molded plastic type that clip onto the body of the iPad. The plastic was very thin and translucent. Both had covers that protected the screen as well.

20 days later the cases arrived and she was so happy. Yes they were pretty and initially they worked very well. About 2 weeks later I got a call from her frantically explaining that the corner of one of the cases had broken off. "I didn't drop it, I didn't do anything to it, it just cracked off!", she exclaimed.

A few weeks old and ready for the landfill

I asked her how the other corners were holding up and as she was looking another corner fell off! Moreover, there were cracks in all the others as well as around each port and button. She was really disappointed. "How much did you pay for these again?", I asked. She got really quiet.

If you take the three pillars of product design: value, style and functionality, these cases proved to be a very poor value. Yes they were cheap to purchase but they were also cheaply made. Yes they had style, but for how long? Any case should be designed to protect. That is the purpose of it's function. But if it falls apart so quickly it cannot protect and does not function. This is a shinning example of poor quality which resulted in a poor user experience.

MacCase has been making quality iPad Pro cases since there have been iPads. We make them one at a time, by hand using methods that are centuries old and combine that with state of the art technology where it will be the most beneficial. We love designing them and we love making them. There is a joy in picking out the hides and seeing them cut. The people who assemble them do so with such great care and real passion for their work. It's inspiring to be around it. Unfortunately all this passion, craft and art gets distilled down to an image on a monitor and a price next to that image. It's hard to sell quality online. So the price sets the expectation.

Defining the Quality iPad Pro Cases

If someone spends $130 on one of our iPad Air 2 cases, my guess is that their expectation of what this case will be like will be very high. Last week I accompanied a friend who wanted to go look at Rolls Royces and Bentleys. Arguably, two of the highest quality "things" made by other humans. For the most part, the cars were exquisite examples of the modern coach builders art. Yes, each one of the revered British marques is now owned by the Germans but the cars are, for the most part assembled in the UK with that attention to detail that the British do so well.

I was sitting in the 2 door Rolls Royce model called the Wraith. The interior was done in black leather and the instrument panel had a row of white stitches sewn horizontally across the very front edge. The white stitches ran across the glove box door on the passenger side. The thing was, there was an offset between where the stitching was on the instrument panel and where it was on the glove box door. It was completely obvious that they didn't line up. Not even close. I mentioned this to the salesman and he mentioned something about it being hand made. As if that was an excuse for them not lining up. How much was this car again? $300,000? For that money, my expectation of what this car should be is very high.

That is one of the best things about making real things and putting them into the world: When someone creates something to a certain standard of quality and that thing finds it's way to someone looking for that thing executed at a certain standard of quality, it's a wonderful exchange.

When you put white thread through black leather, every stitch has to be perfect

Our Premium Leather iPad cases have found their way on to the desks of some of the world's most influential people. Producers and directors in the television and film industry, managers and musicians in the recording industry, executives in the real estate, advertising and legal professions, the list goes on. We're proud that so many people who are trying to do quality work themselves choose our Premium Leather iPad cases. 

Were getting into the fall which means it's time for Apple to start talking about new stuff. This starts next week with the Siri event and will carry on, we think into October with some sort of iPad update. So as the next round of iPads hits the shelves and the next round of cases springs forth from the Chinese factories looking for homes, think about how you want to spend your money to protect that perfect new Apple tablet.

I say this a lot to customers: You bought the most expensive tablet on the planet. Do you really want to protect it with a $10 case you bought on ebay? Really? People want an Apple tablet because….drumroll please…. it represents a certain level of quality. Quality in the manufacture, in the design and in the user experience. This fall, look for quality iPad pro cases that match Apple's tablet in the quality of the manufacturing, design, and user experience. You will not be disappointed.

 "MacCase has been making quality iPad cases since there have been iPads"