Tim Cook saw all the complaints fanboys levied against the ugly new Smart Battery Case his company unveiled this week, but the Apple CEO is defending the controversial new product, claiming Apple’s designers used ‘great insight’ to solve a crutial flaw facing most battery cases.
“The guys had this great insight to put the bend in along with making it a smart case,” Cook explained to Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff, who caught up with the CEO at an Hour of Code event today in NYC.
“If you make this solid all the way across,” said Tim — indicating the spots where Apple case’s embedded battery gives way to the soft fluoroelastomer casing — “in order to get it on, you’d find it very difficult to get it on and off.”
Rival cases from companies lile Mophie use two-part designs that connect together to form a big bulky case. They can be difficult to apply to an iPhone at first, but most users rarely take them off daily.
Despite his defense of Jony Ive’s battery case design, Cook confessed it’s really not for everyone.
“If you’re charging your phone every day, you probably don’t need this at all,” Cook admitted. “But if you’re out hiking and you go on overnight trips… it’s kind of nice to have.”
You know what else is nice to have on multi-day hikes Tim? A battery that can recharge your iPhone from 0 – 100 real quick (unlike the Apple case).