Every time Apple comes out with a new product, the market becomes flooded with the aftermarket add-ons of dozens of suppliers. Have you ever wondered how that process works, or what it's like to work in the ID department of an accessories maker?

In an article called "Before you buy: how Apple hardware is born," MacFormat magazine interviews the Director of Industrial Design and other staffers at Griffin Technology, the Nashville-based manufacturer of Apple peripherals. (Up above are mockups leading to their AirCurve iPhone acoustic speaker.) An excerpt:

George Campbell, Director of Industrial Design:

...Ideas come from a variety of sources. Most often, we find a "problem" with a technology that needs fixing, and work to find a solution to that problem. The first Griffin product, a video adaptor that allowed a PC monitor to connect to a Macintosh computer, was just this kind of solution. Another common starting point is when a product frustrates someone. Frustration is often the mother of invention. We have an organisation that allows for ideas to come from anyone – inside the company or out – and then we evaluate the idea to see if it will make a viable Griffin product.

Read the entire interview here.