OpenCase iPhone 16 MagSafe Cases, Finally!

After quite the delay, I'm really happy to share that the OpenCase iPhone 16 MagSafe Cases for Regular, Plus, Pro and Pro Max are here and ready to ship! For everyone that preordered and patiently waited until we had them in stock, we're extremely grateful. Because of you, we continue to be a business. And we don't take that for granted. 

If you're a follower of our newsletter, you may have heard some of what it's taken to produce the OpenCase iPhone 16 MagSafe Cases, but there's always more to the story. In this post, I thought I would share a little of the behind of the scenes of our journey as scrappy entrepreneurs, including the dilemmas that come with ordering and the challenges that come with participating in the global market.

Ordering Our iPhone 16 Cases

In July 2024, our manufacturer started talking to us about the iPhone 16 cases. We got color swatches and prototypes. We discussed minimum order quantities. We worked through processes that would need to be refined for the specs of the new cases. And then, they wanted to know if we were ready to order.

I hesitated for a bit, because I was thinking about what happened with iPhone 15. For those that don't know, many well-known case makers choose to order cases before the new iPhone is officially revealed. Up until the release of the iPhone 15, there had been rumors that the ringer switch was going to be replaced with an action button, a programmable button that you can tell to do whatever you want. Some case makers bet on the ringer switch staying the same, and ordered cases with an opening. Other case makers bet on the action button taking the ringer switch's place, and ordered cases with a button. Not everyone was right.

Up until the launch of new phone, the rumors were flying about the iPhone 16. I had heard the talk about the camera control button, the two vertical lenses for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, and the inclusion of the action button for all the versions. Our manufacturer even showed us prototypes of the cases that would accommodate these possible updates.

With this in mind and some concern about having enough money to cover a snafu, I had to consult my business partner and better half. Timing felt really important. If we waited to order until the iPhone was out, we'd be guaranteed the proper case. But if we waited to order, we wouldn't be able to compete with the bigger companies. As close to the day of purchasing their new iPhone 16, customers would want their new case. There's a very brief window of time for selling our cases to them, and the further we got from the launch, the harder it would be for us.

After some assurances from our manufacturer, we decided to take the risk. We ordered our iPhone 16 cases before the phone was out. We decided it was better to get in the queue, than be totally left behind.

We work with a very high quality, well regarded case manufacturer. They take on a lot of large contracts from all over the world. As a small start-up, we are not ordering 100,000's of iPhone 16 cases at a time. It's much, much smaller than that. And even though we ordered our cases well before iPhone 16 was out, we were not at the front of the queue.

For months, I stayed in almost daily contact with our supplier to figure out the logistics on our cases. After a number of delays, we learned that our cases had been packed and were ready to ship. Now, it looked we'd see them in mid-November 2024.

Shipping

Following the U.S.'s 2024 election, many U.S. companies started buying greater quantities of supplies from Chinese manufacturers in an effort to buy before tariffs were put in place. At the same time, our iPhone 16 cases were waiting to be picked up for shipping. Needless to say, it was a very long line to get picked up for shipping to the U.S.

For days, we watched the tracking. I even reached back out to the manufacturer to make sure that they really dropped them at the shipper. They were just sitting there. I was reassured that they had been dropped off. Finally, right before Thanksgiving, they were picked up. And a few days later, they were here.

A Happy Holiday, Indeed

In the end, the iPhone 16 cases did arrive in time for the holiday season. They're absolutely gorgeous, especially the newly introduced light grey case for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. We're excited to be able to share them with you. And we cannot say enough how much we appreciate your understanding and support of our little start-up, OpenCase.