Will Apple Ever Update Bumper?

[IJBrekke]

Their bumper has consistently gotten mediocre reviews, with poor quality control and problems with scratching the metal band. Still, it doesn't seem like it would be hard to fix.

Will Apple ever update their product? Or will it simply go away with the next iPhone?

 

[charlesdayton]

I don't think there is going to be an update. The only update Apple did to it was making it compatible with the 4s. Also if the next iPhone continues to use the glass back I guess Apple will continue to make the bumper.

There are complaints but mostly of power users like us Macrumors members. The bumper is one of the most, popular cases for iPhone.


If Apple ever decides to improve it they should consider more colors, non discolorating rubber, and a soft non-scratching interior.

 

[dsquared81]

If Apple ever decides to improve it they should consider more colors, non discolorating rubber, and a soft non-scratching interior.

I completely concur! Would be nice if the white one didn't discolor or if they had a purple or silver color. I'd suggest also bigger headphone jack/dock connector cutouts. A price drop would also be nice as well haha (yeah right though)

 

[rgarjr]

Doubt they will update it. Bumpers are very simplistic cases.

 

[charlesdayton]

I completely concur! Would be nice if the white one didn't discolor or if they had a purple or silver color. I'd suggest also bigger headphone jack/dock connector cutouts. A price drop would also be nice as well haha (yeah right though)

Yes the Bumper is way overpriced for what it is. The Chinese knockoff bumpers are being sold for as low as $2.10, yet they must still be making a profit. Maybe Apple pays $1.00 per bumper...

For Silver you can try the SGP Neo Hybrid EX. It is a little bit bigger than the Apple bumper but they have more colors.

 

[walds11]

The white bumper sucks! The soft light grey outer edge on the white bumper discolors after a short period of time. Other than that, high quality. I have not experienced scratching of the metal antenna. The black bumper is great. No discoloring.

I completely concur! Would be nice if the white one didn't discolor or if they had a purple or silver color. I'd suggest also bigger headphone jack/dock connector cutouts. A price drop would also be nice as well haha (yeah right though)

 

[M Quick]

AFAIK when you get scratches on the antenna band is when people aren't looking into the bumper before they put it on to remove any small debris or whatever may have collected in there and then you get scratches, how i noticed this myself is when you see where the scratches are and then look inside the bumper on the same spot you can see that you have had some sort of junk that got stuck in between that caused the scratches..

This i have noticed with several bumpers on friends phones as well.


But a softer inside that is more slippery would improve that as the debris would't stuck onto it..



About ebay bumpers, they are really nice quality until you actually damage it.. i've lost buttons from them. but for the price you can't really argue against hehe..

 

[charlesdayton]

AFAIK when you get scratches on the antenna band is when people aren't looking into the bumper before they put it on to remove any small debris or whatever may have collected in there and then you get scratches, how i noticed this myself is when you see where the scratches are and then look inside the bumper on the same spot you can see that you have had some sort of junk that got stuck in between that caused the scratches..

This i have noticed with several bumpers on friends phones as well.


But a softer inside that is more slippery would improve that as the debris would't stuck onto it..



About ebay bumpers, they are really nice quality until you actually damage it.. i've lost buttons from them. but for the price you can't really argue against hehe..

Also if the bumper fitted tighter it would greatly reduce the scratches. As is it now it moves a bit.

About the knockoff bumpers:

I prefer the real deal. If you use knockoff ones I read in a previous tread someone recommended removing the buttons and applying a bit of superglue before reattaching. That way the buttons will never fall off. Actually he said that's how the buttons are attached on the real ones.

 

[M Quick]

Also if the bumper fitted tighter it would greatly reduce the scratches. As is it now it moves a bit.

About the knockoff bumpers:

I prefer the real deal. If you use knockoff ones I read in a previous tread someone recommended removing the buttons and applying a bit of superglue before reattaching. That way the buttons will never fall off. Actually he said that's how the buttons are attached on the real ones.

Yeah, i guess!

Me too, i have an OEM apple bumper that i use regularly. Which doesn't seem to have buttons that can fall off when you look at it from behind.

I would worry that excess super glue would scratch the antenna band as well, so i would rather have a button fall off instead hehe.. But i guess you could do it clean as well!

But i can't see how super glue is what the real deal has, if you have the bumper loose and look at them from behind while pushing them in you'll see that they are "floating" parts and certainly not glued.. I guess it's just the ebay quality showing hehe..

 

[charlesdayton]

Yeah, i guess!

Me too, i have an OEM apple bumper that i use regularly. Which doesn't seem to have buttons that can fall off when you look at it from behind.

I would worry that excess super glue would scratch the antenna band as well, so i would rather have a button fall off instead hehe.. But i guess you could do it clean as well!

But i can't see how super glue is what the real deal has, if you have the bumper loose and look at them from behind while pushing them in you'll see that they are "floating" parts and certainly not glued.. I guess it's just the ebay quality showing hehe..

The construction is similar. The buttons are metal and connect to a plastic "floating" part that in turns is what touches the real buttons on the phone. The glue is applied to the metal button to attach it to the plastic, no way it can touch the inside. And the plastic will stay floating.

If you disassemble a real one they are identical, in construction but the metal buttons are glued to the plastic. Probably with industrial CA. on the kockoff the metal buttons are just held by friction with no glue probably as a way to cut costs.

 

[M Quick]

The construction is similar. The buttons are metal and connect to a plastic "floating" part that in turns is what touches the real buttons on the phone. The glue is applied to the metal button to attach it to the plastic, no way it can touch the inside. And the plastic will stay floating.

If you disassemble a real one they are identical, in construction but the metal buttons are glued to the plastic. Probably with industrial CA. on the kockoff the metal buttons are just held by friction with no glue probably as a way to cut costs.

Umm, that's not the problem with the loosing buttons not for me at least..

The whole part that is floating is lost including the button.

The bumper i got from the apple store 3 weeks ago has plastic buttons which looks similar to metal buttons, i just had to try against the lid magnets of the macbook i have and they are certainly not metal!
So as far as i can see they are one piece togheter That is if there isn't any earlier version of the bumpers that has metal buttons that are glued onto plastics (which doesn't really sound right, as it's not common to glue metal to plastic, which makes for a bad connection, but that would explain why the cheap ebay ones looses the buttons from the part)


EDIT: Found the button that i had lost recently and it's not metal either on the ebay bumper..

 

[BlaqkAudio]

The bumper i got from the apple store 3 weeks ago has plastic buttons which looks similar to metal buttons, i just had to try against the lid magnets of the macbook i have and they are certainly not metal!

You do realize that not all metals are magnetic?

 

[charlesdayton]

The buttons on the Apple bumper and fake ones from swbox/dealextreme look exactly the same and have a similar construction. And to me they look like metal. No need for magnetic experiments, I was just trying specify the part by its look. Maybe they are aluminum or nickel plated plastic.

And we are talking about a tiny button we don't need any van der Waals force conection to keep it in place. Any glue does, and factories usually use the cheapest which is industrial Cyanoacrylate (aka, super gule).

The reason the cheap ones loose the buttons and the Apple ones don't is the glue. Take apart an old Apple bumper, pry the metal button out and you will see it is glued. The cheap ones have no glue at all, just pressure fit.

 

[IJBrekke]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I know that I went through two real bumpers in six months (white, then black)....both tore, and both scratched the band. I took great care of both. It is a shame, because otherwise it was perfect for me.

 

[poloponies]

Their bumper has consistently gotten mediocre reviews, with poor quality control and problems with scratching the metal band. Still, it doesn't seem like it would be hard to fix.

Will Apple ever update their product? Or will it simply go away with the next iPhone?

Apple has traditionally left cases and accessories to 3rd parties, aside from a token option or two.

 

[charlesdayton]

Apple has traditionally left cases and accessories to 3rd parties, aside from a token option or two.

Actually Apple has made many accessories, but most have failed in terms of sales:

HiFi Boombox
iPod/Phone leather sleeve
In ear headphones (1st gen)
Bluetooth earphone


Currently the bumper is probably the best selling iPhone case regardless of price. I doubt Apple will stop making them any time soon. Also their current line of accessories includes:

iPad Smart Cover
in ear headphones (2nd gen)
AA batteries and charger
Cables/dock