- PopSockets unveils its thinnest iPhone MagSafe grip yet
- It’s 2.6mm thick
- Comes in 12 colors and is available exclusively at the Apple Store — for now
Every gadget has an origin story, but PopSocket’s Low-Pro iPhone grip might be special. Unveiled today in the Apple store, it’s an idea as old as the PopSockets brand, but one that waited almost a decade, until the original grip had become a smartphone industry icon, adorning the backs of hundreds of millions of phones.
PopSockets makes a wide range of grip styles, and some, like the Kick-Out & Grip, are pretty low profile, but nothing is quite like the 2.6 mm-thick Low-Pro, which PopSockets ‘ VP of Marketing Lisa Li calls “a labor of love.”
The idea for the Low Pro traces back to the first few months of PopSockets when Founder and CEO David Barnett was already percolating ideas for an ultra-thin grip. But to understand that notion, you need to know why and how Barnett developed the PopSocket grip in the first place.
Blame it on the wired headphones
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A former University of Colorado Philosophy professor, Barnett had headphones he frequently used with his iPhone, which got tangled in his pocket. As a solution, he purchased a pair of large coat buttons and glued them to the back of his iPhone 3G (I saw it, it’s real). Then he wrapped the headphone cord around them.
Problem solved. That spark of ingenuity ignited a little flame of innovation: Barnett realized he could do more with his phone cable holder and envisioned an attachable and collapsible pair of grips. He even taught himself CAD and created a 3D print of a 2.1mm-thick disk. The print was a bit of a failure in that it didn’t expand and was basically a stiff disc he now sometimes carried with him.
Even as Barnett started to hand out early grip prototypes to his students and they started using them as grips, Barnett couldn’t shake the notion that it could be thinner. He told a friend about his idea:
“He was visibly upset, and he scolded me. I still remember that he was basically yelling at me in this coffee shop. He said, ‘ You would be a complete idiot to turn your attention and start developing a new product when you’re sitting on something that could be a big hit here.'”
Barnet took his advice to heart, shelved the ultra-thin idea, and grew the PopSockets into a popular brand and, for some, an indispensable smartphone accessory.
Those darn skinny jeans
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He also never let go of the idea, and as he talked to customers over the years, he noticed an odd trend with potential male users who said that while the product looked cool, they wouldn’t use it because it would get stuck in their pockets.
“That’s funny…what are they talking about? I slip it into my pocket. I just put my hand over it like this [and] I slip it into my pocket,” said Barnett, who added that he’d never gotten one of his PopSocket grips stuck in his pockets.
Still, Barnett and company soon realized that there might be a market opportunity if they returned to that ultra-thin idea, a grip so low profile that it barely has any edges — and would never get stuck in a pocket.
Getting there, though, would not be easy. Stripping a few millimeters off their current thinnest design, arguably the PopSockets Kick-Out & Grip stand (6mm), would require re-engineering an OG component: the two-step expansion accordion section between the base on the button: it’s the place where you slide your fingers to grip the…er…grip.
The result is a PopSocket grip that feels unlike any that’s come before it. Instead of a satisfying two-step pop-up to snap into place, the Low-Pro grip has one action, and when it’s open, the button sort of hovers or wiggles atop what honestly looks like a very flimsy rubber platform. It isn’t even a single piece of material that’s attached to the thin base that sits inside an equally thin steel ring. Like PopSocket grips before it, the ring and base are attached by a hinge. Instead of the button swinging out as a kickstand, the metal ring does that work, opening to virtually any degree.
Barnett assured me, by the way, that the $39.99 PopSocket Low-Pro is stronger than it looks.
To conduct a tensile test, the PopSockets team glued the base to a phone and then pulled on the button. It held up to 30-lbs pressure. In the real world, the magnet would give way off a MagSafe iPhone back before the Low-Pro tore in half.
They also opened and closed the Low-Pro 100,000 times without issue.
The new grip is so thin that MagSafe charges can still work through it, though charging speeds may be diminished. The magnetized face is strong enough to hold tight onto other magnetic surfaces, which means you could mount your iPhone on a metal cabinet or your metal fridge.
All about the iPhone — for now
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Unlike the classic PopSockets, which are platform-agnostic and used to attach to phones and phone cases with a sticky base, the Low-Pro is designed for MagSafe and, therefore, the iPhone. In fact, the PopSockets Low-Pro grip launches exclusively on the Apple Store today with six colors, arrives in Best Buy and Target on July 12, and at all other retailers on July 29. By then, it should be available in 12 colors.
It’s a relatively big swing for PopSockets to take a familiar and loved design and basically toss it out (at least for the Low-Pro) to bring in new customers who demand thinness at all costs, but Barnett has faced tough critics before, and it seems he’s eventually won them over.
When Barnett shared the prototype for his very first grip with his wife, she told him, “It was the stupidest thing she’d ever seen, and that nobody was going to ever buy one,” he recalled.
A decade later, he gave her a preview of the Low-Pro. “Her reaction,” Barnett said, “was that it’s the best invention since the credit card. She said everyone’s going to buy this thing.”
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
