We’ve seen several cases based on the leaked iPhone 5 case designs, which we hear are everywhere in China. In fact, Chinese counterfeiters seem to be so confident that the case designs are accurate that they’ve already started selling iPhone 5 knockoffs in China.

Folks at MacRumors have even gone to the extent of hiring a design studio to create high quality renderings based on the purported iPhone 5 case designs as they feel that leaked iPhone case designs have a decent track record in predicting future iPhones.

TechCrunch has just reported that Case-Mate, one of the major US-based case manufacturers also seem to be working on iPhone 5 cases based on the leaked designs. In fact, Case-Mate briefly published a page, which featured iPhone 5 cases based on them and quickly pulled it down. TechCrunch however managed to get hold of some of the photos.

As far as we’re aware, case manufacturers usually don’t get early access to Apple’s upcoming hardware so we would take this with a grain of salt. However, since case manufacturers have a huge financial incentive to start selling cases for the new iPhone as soon as it is launched, it is possible that Case-Mate isn’t taking any chances and has developed cases based on the leaked designs just in case the leaked designs turn out to be accurate. Matt Burns of TechCrunch had this to say about what the new iPhone will look like based on the Case-Mate case:

The result is a device with styling cues clearly taken from the iPad 2 and current iPod touch with a tapered back and thinner casing.

So while we’re tired of the never ending rumors and speculations about iPhone 5’s form factor and new features, it looks like some folks are taking some of this very seriously.

Apple is expected to unveil their highly anticipated fifth generation iPhone in the coming weeks, with a possible launch in the first half of October. We will find out if it was worth the gamble for the case manufacturers.

[via TechCrunch]