Originally Posted by
Lady Fitzgerald
Curious (polite term). Other manufacturers are putting out cases with tempered glass and don't have the problems with cost and shipping you are predicting nor do they have a major price bump, especially $100-200. Of course, if Chinese glass quality is anything like Chinese steel quality (or, rather, the lack of consistent quality), then yes, there may be problems if you used Chinese glass. One internet company I just looked up can make a single 1/8" x 16" square piece of tempered glass with polished edges (no drilled holes) for $31 (before shipping; ground shipping from Vancouver, WA to my location, a commercial address in the Phoenix, AZ area, is only $16 for one piece). Both the price of the glass, and especially the cost of shipping, would go down dramatically with larger volumes. You could cut costs further by not having the edges polished.
Shipping isn't that big a deal. Companies have been shipping tempered glass products for decades without problems or excessive cost.
Then there is your absurd allegation about tempered glass exploding. When tempered glass does break, it does so into small pieces instead of large sharp shards which is much safer. Also, tempered glass is far less likely to break. While there have been instances of tempered glass breaking spontaneously, often with a loud bang (but not an actual explosion), it's fairly rare and usually happens only with large pieces, such as shower doors or, far more often but still fairly rare, table tops where the glass' own weight stresses it. It used to happen occasionally with automotive glass when increased pressure due to extreme heat in a sealed vehicle would cause the glass to crystalize (very slightly cracking a window open prevented that). Even then, the broken pieces would often stay in place. When they didn't, the pieces would just drop straight down due to gravity. It's been a decade or two since I've seen or heard of that happening anymore.
Case Labs seem to be good at coming up with excuses for not incorporating new to you technology in your cases (such as excuses for not offering front panel type C USB 3.1 ports).