Speculative moldmaking

A friend of mine (a computer science major) asked me if creating iphone cases is a profitable business? I said sure if you have half a million dollars laying around maybe (which is usually the costs required to get a steel mold created for the product). Anyway I came across this interesting article about the industry and sent it to him from {core77} more 
On the morning of Apple's Oct. 4 announcement, top managers at Palo Alto startup Speck huddled into a conference room filled with colorful MacBooks to watch the news trickle in. They had created several rough models of potential new designs for the next iPhone, but were far from committing to any of them. "We have no idea what's going to hit the market," says Irene Baran, Speck's CEO. "We listen to the rumors like everyone else does and make intelligent guesses." -core77