Third-party iPhone case makers should have had a market edge with the widely criticised FineWoven cases, but with the introduction of the new Action Button for iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, some manufactures found themselves with stock which doesn’t work well with the new button.

Manufactures, like Nomad and MOFT, gambled wisely and had the right placement of the buttons, while Peak Design and Bellroy chose wrongly to have a cutout above the volume buttons to expose the ringer switch, instead of a hard button to press the Action Button.

With the Peak Design and Bellroy cases, one of the best new features this year, the Action Button, is buried under the lip of the case and practically hopeless to tap without twisting a fingertip in to reach it.

Manufacturers usually don’t know what the new features or buttons the iPhones will have but they make cases anyway hoping they get it right. This can be a lucrative move or disastrous especially when new big hardware is added.

According to a Peak Design Reddit post: “We actually do not have the literal 3D details from Apple and so we are reliant on industry rumors to inform the design. In the case of the new ‘Action Button,’ there were rumours in both the switch and the button direction, and we also did not have much information on how a potential button would be used. Because of these conflicting rumors, we opted for the safer route and designed a cutout that would give good access to the button feature or a switch depending on which rumour ended up being the actual truth.”

In another Reddit post which is claimed to be by Peter Dering, founder of Peak Design, he shared how the company came to make the design decisions for the new iPhone cases.

“We decided to go with a cutout instead of a button a) because we couldn’t be certain that they would be using the Action Button, and b) we were hopeful that the cutout would still provide a reasonably good experience,” the post said.

According to The Verge, the Peak Design manufactured and shipped 30,000 cases prior to identifying that the cutout gave a below standard experience compared to a proper button which is not only a waste of materials and resources which will cost the company, but the waste could impact the environment negatively.

The Reddit posts said that Peak’s new correctly designed cases will not be available for four to six weeks, but in the meantime, the corporation will have a crack to come up with a retrofit solution for already purchased cases missing the update.

There is also now a Peak Design support which will guide customers on taking advantage of a store credit of $15 to $40 for those that already purchased cases.

Bellroy representative Julia Gaw told The Verge will start shipping new updated cases in November and that they are now “working on a solution to make that an integrated button rather than a cutout for the next production run. With what we know now, we acknowledge that a raised button is more fit-for-purpose.”

Like Peak Designs, Bellroy is also working on a retrofit solution and consumers can exchange their case for the new design when available.

Because of manufacturers not being briefed about the new Action Button of the Phone 15 Pro or Pro Max, new third-party cases are challenging to find but if consumers can wait a couple weeks or months, more should be available.

Based on their experience this year, manufactures may find that the gamble was too costly to retool or refund consumers in the future which is a high cost to them and the environment.