Indian off-shoring services giant Wipro will expand their existing product design services to include actual manufacturing of prototypes, according to CIO Magazine.

Wipro plans to work with third-party manufacturers to put together small prototype product runs, a responsibility which will be shifted to the customer should the product prove successful.

This is an excellent extension of traditional outsourcing services which makes a lot of sense by most traditional metrics; startup costs can be the most significant part of introducing a new product line for years and years, and with no guarantee of success, the company (particularly smaller companies without well-developed internal prototyping systems) can potentially defray considerable costs and much risks by outsourcing that segment of the product development cycle.

Concerns over IP control and time to market probably comprise most of the concern over outsourcing (and particularly off-shore outsourcing) of these services, but Wipro's reputation may be sufficiently well-developed to assuage these sorts of doubts among potential clients.