How a Small Australian Firm Built the World’s Most Imitated iPad Case

When the iPad entered classrooms and offices more than a decade ago, an unexpected issue quickly surfaced: tablets broke frequently and at considerable cost. School systems reported high annual replacement spending, with some districts in the United States noting double-digit breakage rates among student-issued devices. Accessory makers moved to fill the gap, but few produced solutions built for the realities of daily use.

STM Goods, an Australian company founded in Sydney in 1998, recognised the pattern forming earlier than most. Led by CEO Ethan Nyholm and his co-founder and product leader Adina Jacobs, the firm began experimenting with rugged tablet cases long before institutional buying cycles matured. What would eventually become the Dux case started as a response to one observation: users needed protection that was both durable and easy to handle.

“The first prototypes were not about looking tough, they were about understanding how people actually carried, dropped, and stored their devices,” Nyholm said. That philosophy would shape one of the sector’s most widely copied designs.

Why the Dux Became a Benchmark

By 2014, STM’s Dux case had begun circulating widely through education technology conferences in Australia and North America. It combined reinforced corners, transparent backs for asset tagging, and compatibility with keyboards—features tailored for schools, which deployed millions of iPads globally. Analysts estimate that the global education tablet market surpassed 30 million units annually during that period, creating a large and demanding customer base.

Competitors paid attention. Accessories featuring similar structural reinforcements and clear panels soon appeared in catalogues from the United States, Europe, and China. STM lacked the marketing budgets of larger rivals, yet its influence spread through procurement teams who compared products side by side and found the same structural ideas replicated elsewhere.

Nyholm recalls how rapidly mimicry followed adoption. “We would attend trade shows and see designs that looked uncannily familiar,” she said. STM continued iterating the Dux line through multiple iPad generations, drawing on feedback from teachers, IT administrators, and field technicians responsible for repairs.

The Education Sector Shaped the Engineering

Few markets stress-test hardware as intensely as public schools. Devices are shared, carried without cases, left in backpacks, and dropped on hard surfaces.

STM used this environment to refine its engineering. The company studied real patterns of device failure, such as cracked lenses, bent frames, shattered screens, and adjusted materials, hinge mechanics, and drop-protection standards accordingly.

The Dux gained traction among IT administrators who prioritised function over branding. Its longevity comes from this practical orientation: consistent performance across model generations, without excessive design embellishment.

Surviving Against Larger Competitors

Operating without external capital and with a comparatively small team, STM expanded its reach gradually and deliberately. The education sector became its most influential proving ground, as schools deploying thousands of iPads needed durable protection that could withstand daily wear.

By focusing on these high-volume institutional users and refining designs through real-world feedback, STM built a global presence across North America, Europe, and Asia. Its growth has been steady, carried less by marketing than by consistent field performance and long-term product reliability.

An Influence That Continues to Echo

Today, the Dux is widely imitated, shaped by the practical demands of schools and businesses rather than marketing. As device costs rise and replacement cycles stretch, protective accessories have become essential, turning the iPad case into a routine budget item for education systems.

For STM, the spread of copycat designs is both a challenge and an affirmation. The small Australian firm that began with a single backpack idea now sees its tablet case architecture echoed across markets from California to Shenzhen.

Jacobs offers a measured perspective on imitation. “If others build on ideas that genuinely help people protect their devices, that tells us we focused on the right problem,” she said.

Global tablet adoption continues to expand, and the design principles established by a modest Sydney company more than two decades ago still influence one of the most competitive categories in consumer accessories.