A French 3D printing company by the name of Sculpteo has begun offering 3D printed iPhone dock adapters for third-party iPod speakers. The adapters allow users to use Lightning connector iPhones and iPods in older dock connector speaker systems. The beauty of this system is that it allows Sculpteo to offer these adapters for a wide range of older speaker systems without the upfront costs of hiring a factory to manufacture thousands of units. From a user perspective, it's advantageous because, theoretically, any old iPod speaker system they have could have an adapter made for it quickly so it's compatible with new Lightning connector iOS devices.
