Solid iPhone Case Discovered

We’ve found it! The holy grail of iPhone cases! Take a look on Ebay or in stores online and you’ll find no shortage of iPhone cases claiming to be made of high quality materials. However in our experience, they all fall short in some way. Either they have a cheap hinge, the belt click is very lightweight, the plastic scratches easily or what have you.

If you’re currently selling iPhone cases in quantity or are interested in becoming a distributor, Rio United, Ltd. is looking for you and their cases are really in a class by themselves. Have a look at this video demonstration:

The case comes in a blister pack with clear English suitable for resell in the US and Europe.

In addition to the case itself, Rio United also sells a ‘cupholder/suction cup’ add-on that works very well with this case. With the case and the cupholder add-on paired together, you can essentially hold your iPhone in any standard size cupholder for GPS use etc.

The cupholder add-on unscrews open, exposing some storage space.

Once unscrewed, the top of the cupholder add-on can be used as a suction cup on a window. The iPhone twists vertically or horizontally, with a total of 22 different angles that it can ‘click’ into. The hinge itself is made of magnesium.

Another area that sets this iPhone case apart from others we’ve seen is the extremely solid clip. The clip is made of cast aluminum. As you can see below, it’s solid.

Here’s what the clip looks like without the metal exposed for the demo.

Rio United also sells this case designed for a variety of other phones including the Motorola Q and various Blackberrys. They will also be introducing one for the i-Pod Touch shortly.

Rio United is currently quoting an initial FOB price of $14USD per case when purchased in quantities of 1,000. At quantities of 10,000 they are open to private branding and other mutually beneficial relationships.

The marketing and sales director’s name is Gary Lo and he can be contacted in Hong Kong at +852 2420 2027 or via email at sales@riounited.com. Everyone who we spoke with at Rio United spoke English well. However if you’d like some assistance with initial communications please feel free to contact us and we’ll lend a hand!

The SourceJuice Team

October 21, 2007 | Filed Under Sample Reviews | 2 Comments

Visiting the Hong Kong Electronics & Components Show

Tomorrow, Saturday 13, a group of SourceJuice folks from the US, Shanghai and Shenzhen are off to the Hong Kong Electronics & Components show. The show is being held by Global Sources and we’re looking forward to meeting with the thousands of suppliers there.

A few weeks ago we put up a poll asking what you all are most interested in terms of products. Considering we’re a brand new site, we were pleased that 12 people voted. And the results of the poll.. drum roll please!

Hong Kong Electronics & Components Fair Poll

Therefore, in addition to generally making relationships with vendors, we’ll be keeping a lookout for these types of products!

October 13, 2007 | Filed Under Trade Shows | 1 Comment

The phantom product and our first sample, part 2

Eager to get our hands on our new 2.4ghz camera, we opened the box as soon as we got home. One of my biggest gripes about products that come out of China is how obviously “un-ready” they are for the US market. Don’t get me wrong, the hardware appeared to be of good quality. However the packaging and instruction manual were simply not up to snuff. If you had purchased this product in The Home Depot or Lowe’s, you would not be happy with this product’s initial appearance. Let’s use this opportunity to break down the box and packaging to show what we are looking out for and what you should too, unless of course the factory allows you to submit your own packaging.

First, the outside of the box:

Front
2.4ghz Camera - Front of the box

It’s clear this box is very generic and that this factory uses this same box for any number of cameras. If you’re buying this product in bulk to use for your own company, perhaps in your own warehouses or similar, this may not be an issue. However if you’re planning on reselling this camera in your home market, this box isn’t going to cut it. It needs to be specific to the product which it contains.

Bottom
2.4ghz Camera - Bottom of the box

The bottom of the box confirms our suspicion. There are checkboxes for all different model numbers, power types, PAL vs NTSC, and receiver type.

Side Specs
2.4ghz Camera - Side of the box
What’s interesting is that even though this box can hold any number of cameras, the factory managed to pin down exact specs. Do all the possible camera combinations that can go in this box all share the exact same specs? Perhaps. But who knows.

Certifications
2.4ghz Camera - Certifications
With everything going on right now in the news about poor quality products and recalls, we plan to spend more time analyzing product certifications and eventually get into doing our own material quality tests. Again, is it possible all the cameras that can go in this box have all of these certifications? Possibly. But who knows.

Inside
2.4ghz Camera - Inside the box
When we opened the box, this is what we were greeted by. It’s not terrible but overall it’s cheap looking, poor quality packaging.

Directions
2.4ghz Camera - Directions
And the directions… oh the directions! Please see the example above. Notice the run on, sometimes incomplete and in general incorrect grammar. Could the end user understand what to do? Sure. But is this US market ready? Clearly not.

In summary, our goal to seek out a really cool WIFI camera was a bit of a bust. However, many of the reasons we started this website to begin with is to point out what we already knew.. that the products on the market are typically not US market ready and that it’s difficult to seek out quality factories that make quality products and do business at a western standard. We will continue to seek these out and present them to our readers!

In the meantime, please look at the right side of this blog at the quick poll we are running! We are going to the Hong Kong Electronics and Components Show on Oct. 12-15. We’re looking forward to visiting the 2500+ vendors there on your behalf and seeking out the best products! So far GPS products are showing the most interest. Place your vote now!

October 13, 2007 | Filed Under Sample Reviews | Leave a Comment

The phantom product and our first sample, part 1

As we begin to ramp up our sourcing blog and bring you, the reader, up to date information on interesting products being produced in the Pearl River Delta, we set our sights on a WI-FI surveillance camera.

WIFI Camera

This camera was to be the panacea of easy home security. The wireless camera should be able to sit anywhere in your house or office and come to life upon sensing motion. The camera would have an IP address and sit on your wireless network as if it was a computer. From any computer on the internet, you would be able to log in to the feed and monitor your home. We had to get one to try it out!

What followed was all to typical in China and so although we did not wind up successful in acquiring a sample to review, there is an even more important information that can be shared. Our experience trying to locate this camera illustrates exactly the challenges in sourcing from a country like China and hopefully lays down for the novice some things to watch out for. And for those with more experience in sourcing, perhaps you can gleam a chuckle if you have had similar experiences.

The first problem we encountered was that this same WIFI camera appeared to come from numerous sources at AliBaba. To find out who actually made the darn thing, we first eliminated vendors that had offices in NanShan, Futian etc and focused on vendors who actually had industrial space in Bao An, Buji, etc. These were more likely to be actual factories as opposed to trading companies or resellers. A few calls later and we narrowed it down to a factory in Buji that claimed to be the factory that makes the WIFI camera. We made an appointment the following day at 10:30am to go visit.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a nice enough Chinese sales representative who appeared quite new. We asked to have a look at the WIFI camera that we had seen on their AliBaba webpage but it appeared the gentleman was being a bit elusive, unwilling to allow us access to the product we had discussed on the phone the day before. He goes off to discuss with his boss and came back with the following answer: This product was made under a special order for a customer and only 20 were made, before the customer decided not to follow through with the order. What we were hearing was quite shocking. Here is a product that is blasted all over AliBaba, appears to be sold by numerous vendors and this factory who over the phone claims to make it in their own Buji factory, is now saying that it doesn’t exist. Were we being cheated?

Not to ruin the trip and since we were really interested in the concept of WIFI cameras in general, we asked what other products they have that may be of interest to us. Unfortunately they didn’t have a single camera that sits on a WIFI network. They did however have a nice range of 2.4ghz cameras and we asked to see some. We found this product interesting because of its weight and quality appearance:

2.4ghz Camera - Front

2.4ghz Camera - Side

Since one of the goals of this website is to review products for you all, we asked for a sample. Again we were met with some resistance. The salesperson was new and claimed he wasn’t authorized to give a sample. Mind you we were not demanding a free sample. We were willing to leave a deposit and return the item later. We were also willing to buy the sample outright if necessary. Nonetheless the salesperson insisted he needed to talk with his boss and the boss was not available until tomorrow. He would have to get back to us. A bit frustrated about the apparent waste of a trip out to this factory, we left, thanking him for his time and telling him we would contact him tomorrow.

Sure enough the following day the salesperson invited us back to pick up the sample. We would need to leave a 450RMB deposit, but that it would be reimbursed upon either an order or the return of the sample. Another trip out to the factory, 2 hours away, and we had our sample in hand.