Here's what *I* want to buy:
* Start with an Innocase, but cover the buttons with silicone or pliable rubber plugs that make contact with the underlying buttons (like the Droid Otterbox). Put texturing at the contact points to make the point where you're supposed to press easy to find by touch. The plugs aren't to keep out dirt and water (though it's a nice side bonus) -- they're to give you something to grip on the proper half of the phone so that when you grab it with one hand and hit the power button with your thumb or index finger, you won't end up shearing the phone and making it pop open (or jiggle disturbingly and risk dropping it).
* Add a 2200-2400mAH extended battery with new back and styrene spacer (to fill the gap between the stock battery and extended back if you want to use the old battery as an emergency fallback power source). Why 2200-2400? Another website determined that the "usable" capacity of Seidio's 3500mAH extended battery was ~2800mAH, and the "usable" capacity of most cheap 3500mAH batteries from China sold on eBay was around 2200-2400mAH.
Here's the key: for most Evo (and Epic) users, the stock 1500mAH battery (like ours) is grossly inadequate... but the Seidio 3500mAH battery is just a little bigger than most users really wanted to tolerate, and generally exceeded the urgent daily power needs of most users. In other words, 2800mAH of usable power was nice, but 2200 was a huge improvement over 1500 that was basically good enough to keep nearly everyone happy. More importantly, just about everyone liked the "Chinese" battery back better than Seidio's... to the point where more than a few people bought a Seidio extended battery AND a cheap Chinese one just to get the nicer back. Then found out that Seidio's battery was about 1mm thicker, and the Chinese battery backs just wouldn't quite fit.
This is the kind of real-world market research money can't buy. It demonstrates that there's clearly a market for batteries with as much capacity as possible... but a middle ground that Seidio could exploit with batteries delivering 2200-2400mAH of useful power (probably 2800-3000 nominal mAH, if you go by the scale that rates Seidio's nominally-3500mAH battery at 2800 useful mAH) that are thin enough to be tolerable to just about everyone.
* Don't forget the styrene spacer. That 5-cent block of plastic is sized to sit on top of the stock battery and fill the gap so it can be used with the extended-battery's back. The assumption is that 99.9% of the time, you'll just use the phone with the extended battery, and keep the charged stock battery around for emergency use. A phone back is kind of fragile. A 1mm x 2" x 3" block of plastic isn't. Plus, it has a cavity formed into it that's the size of the stock battery to keep the contacts from shorting out and take up even less space. When you need to use it as a spacer, flip it over so the hollow cavity faces up
* Now, add a rubberized exoskeleton that clips onto the Innocase-like inner shell. When attached, the keyboard is securely locked in place, and it's just like the phone doesn't have one at all. The phone is also better-protected against drops. Because it's easy to remove the exoskeleton, and because the underlying case can be used on its own, it's a win-win compromise. People who like the keyboard can attach the exoskeleton when they need the added protection, and people who hate the keyboard can leave the exoskeleton in place all the time.
* Make it even MORE perfect with the addition of a GameGrip purchased by Seidio from the guy who makes them that are customized to fit onto an Epic that has the Innocase-like case attached, but the exoskeleton removed (obviously... the Gamegrip sits over the keyboard. If the keyboard can't slide out, there's nothing to attach the Gamegrip to). This is really the icing on the cake. The guy who makes Gamegrips would almost certainly never do a production run JUST for Epics with an extended battery and specific case... but if Seidio showed up and ordered a few thousand from him, I'm sure he'd be happy to get a batch made. If they RETAIL for $15, they're probably dirt cheap for him to make, and Seidio could almost certainly buy the customized ones from him for a fraction of that price.
IMHO, this would be an awesome product bundle for Seidio to sell, because NONE of their competitors could really match it. Otterbox doesn't sell batteries. Other cases don't fit phones with extended batteries, and even on older phones like the Evo, cases that will work with an extended battery are basically nonexistent. And, if by some miracle of God, you managed to find a case that worked with an extended battery, you could forget about using it with a stock Gamegrip.
Only Seidio can really bring all 3 elements together in the same box and enable Epic owners to enjoy a battery that lasts all day without having to cripple the phone and sacrifice half the stuff that supposedly makes it cool and desirable in the first place, protected by a decent case that can provide additional protection and secure the keyboard when/if desired. Then enable buyers to play arcade games without having to disassemble half the phone, first.
Would I buy one?
HELL YEAH!.
