Nimble OtterBox stays ahead of mobile curve

FORT COLLINS – Visit OtterBox’s “testimonials” web page and you’ll find tribute after tribute to the durability of the company’s cell-phone cases.

Take the fellow who had his phone, encased in an OtterBox cover, clipped to his shorts while tending a bonfire. Unbeknownst to him, the phone fell into the fire. He noticed his phone had gone missing, asked his wife to call it, and heard the ringing coming from the fire. He retrieved the phone and reported that it “only had minor melting on the bottom corner but still works today! I will always suggest this product to anyone interested and it is nice a product works like it professes!”

Too good to be true? Nope, said mobile devices senior analyst Michael Morgan of ABI Research. OtterBox’s cases have a devoted following, and for good reason.

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“OtterBox really focuses on the quality of the product, especially on protection,” he said. “An OtterBox case is as protected as you can get in every price range they sell to.”

Founded by entrepreneur Curt Richardson in 1998, OtterBox offered an early protection solution for cell-phone users with a penchant for accidentally bathing their phones. Richardson devised a case designed to waterproof a user’s phone, and the concept took off. Despite the usual setbacks and struggles any startup faces, OtterBox persevered and continues to grow rapidly and secure market share – as high as 15 percent in some segments, analyst Morgan reports. It employs more than 400 people.

Brian Thomas has succeeded Richardson as chief executive, with the founder moving to board chair status, but the company culture remains riveted on quality.

“What we love about OtterBox is that the product itself is reliable. It works,” said Adam J. Furman, vice president for sales at Shieldmans Mobile Accessories Inc. in Boulder. Thomas said the OtterBox culture is one that refuses to let challenges stand in the way of success. “OtterBox company culture is built around our core values,” he said. “One of those values is passion. When (our employees) see an obstacle, they seek to overcome it.” Morgan said he’s been impressed with OtterBox’s ability to stay ahead of the curve in the dizzyingly competitive mobile-accessories marketplace. “OtterBox is tightly focused on every element of the phone case market and is determined to be No. 1 in that market with a high-quality produce,” he said. “Others in that space are content to view the phone case as a commodity. OtterBox sees it very differently.”

That’s in part because OtterBox doesn’t simply sell phone cases, but rather an experience and a sense of well-being, Thomas said.

“We sell protection, but it’s more than just protection for a phone or tablet. We protect your data, your photos, your connection to family, friends and work,” he said. “OtterBox sells peace of mind. As mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous in our everyday lives, that need for protection grows.”

Can OtterBox keep up the pace? Morgan said challenges will continue to come at OtterBox and everyone else in the constantly morphing mobile-accessories business. Competitors have to guess right when they design a new case for an upcoming phone release that may or may not be a hit with users. They have to battle the notion that phones themselves are becoming tougher, so cases aren’t as critical as they once were. And they must be ready to expand their product lines to protect themselves from over-concentration on the mobile phone case market.

But if anyone can do it, Morgan thinks OtterBox can.

“Even their lowest-priced cases have much more quality than the others in that niche,” he says. “They have been able to brand themselves and to win very loyal customers,” something not many phone case makers have achieved. That lends itself to branching out into other accessory product lines, he said. More to the point, OtterBox listens, both to its customers and to retailers such as Shieldsman. Furman said he and his business partner started “mixing and matching” colors with OtterBox cases a few years ago to play to customers’ sense of style, and OtterBox took note. Now, OtterBox has become a leader in the color mixing and matching game – another leg up in a furious battle for market share.