Elevation Lab Releases Lightning Adapter for Popular iPhone Dock

Doesn't anyone else find that to be a bit insane?

Depends. I mean, to some, it's just a piece of colored machined metal. To others, it's a decorative accent piece. After all, isn't $1000 too much for a stuffed bag of polyester and feathers? Some colored oil on fabric sells for tens of thousands of dollars. How about a bunch of animal skins stitched together by cotton? Is that really worth hundreds? Yet people still buy beds, paintings, and leather coats.

I think many people are missing the point -- this article isn't saying "hey, a new dock has been announced for the iPhone 5, so if you've been waiting for an iPhone 5 dock, here you go", rather it's saying "Elevation Labs, makers of a really expensive custom iPhone dock that was wildly popular on Kickstarter, have announced an adaptor to allow their existing dock to be used with the iPhone 5; this should be popular with their existing customers - oh, and you can also buy the dock along with the new adapter (for a very high price) if you feel so inclined."

They set out to build the Rolls Royce of docks for the iPhone 4, and largely achieved that, then Apple surprised everyone by changing the dock connector after a decade of sameness, and shortly after Elevation Labs got all those Kickstarted docks out the door. If you want a super-high-end dock, this is for you, if you'd rather put your phone on the floor/desk/ceiling (or in a not-yet-shipping cheaper dock), nobody's twisting your arm to buy one. To finish the analogy, people don't normally get all worked up merely because luxury cars exist.

The only thing insane is that there's still no freaking approved iPhone 5 dock that you can buy right now, 2 months after launch.

These guys could charge as much they want for it, there's no competition.

Also, these guys are a small startup designing and manufacturing docks in the US from CNC machined solid aluminium.

Their margins are undoubtedly proportionally lower than those of these well-known brands who will sell you mass-produced plastic-molded docks made in China for around $30.

Doesn't anyone else find that to be a bit insane?

Hahahah. An apple forum complaining about overpriced anything? Dudes we own the most overpriced phones and laptops in the market. 89 is nothing to the amounts we pay for apple products.

It certainly looks good, but it's way too expensive for a dock imo.

To be fair, in addition to your clarification, it does say that too:

"The company is also selling an $89 redesigned dock that is specifically designed for the iPhone 5."

Noted. Though to be fair, the article gets it wrong when it says "specifically designed for the iPhone 5" -- go look at the page linked in that sentence, and you won't find that text, instead you'll see their iPhone 4 dock with the same red iPhone 5 Lightning adapter inserted, and under that picture, the wording, "Lightning mount. Your cord fits securely inside the dock with our all-metal Lightning Adapter." So, I stand by my wording of, "oh, and you can also buy the dock along with the new adapter (for a very high price)".

Debate whether the price is reasonable all you want. I'm just trying to point out that a) the article was really about the availability of the adapter, not advertising a new dock, and b) they set out to make an expensive "cost-no-object" dock, and found an audience -- they got over 12K backers on Kickstarter (was kind of a sensation at the time, raised $1.4M of their $75K goal). To fault a Ferrari for being too expensive for practical around-town use is to miss the point of a Ferrari.

It's spendy because it's a solid block of CNC-machined aluminum. Won't leap off the desk when you pick up the phone (even when connected via old-school 30-pin connector). Was a very popular Kickstarter project.

It's nice to see that all you need is a new cable holder (and cable) for the iPhone 5 to work with the dock. They could have easily told you to buy a brand new dock. Smart move. :)

for those of you who are having issues undocking your iPhone 5 with the lightning cable adapter supplied by elevation dock, everything works perfect, execpt you cant undock with one hand, when trying it lifts the entire dock up. so i took my lightning cable to the grinder and made it smaller take a look below..