Personal Bytes

A rather funny article comparing the unboxing of a Lenovo Thinkpad X60 vs the Apple Macbook Pro raised an interesting question about the design of the box. Clearly, unboxing an Apple computer is a much richer experience than unpacking a common laptop. They thought about it (or Steve demanded so).

In the follow up to that article, a comment surged suggesting that no one cares about that. Here’s the statement

Wow! The Mac comes in a cool box (or color, or shape, or whatever) so let’s buy that! Give me a break! The Lenovo comes in a standard shipping box designed to deliver the product anywhere in the world in one piece. The Mac comes in a designer box that would still have to be packed in another box to ship, so what’s the difference? Maybe one day the author will discover that most of us don’t care about the Apple “experience”, or the box, or what color the computer is. A computer is a tool, not a fashion statement. Next time, give us an article comparing the pcs, not the packaging. If Apple can ever get past this sort of air-headed elitism, then maybe they will finally break out of small single digit market penetration.

The guy has a point. Ten years ago, the computer was merely a tool and the packaging was the least of the problems. Nowadays, that’s simply not true.

A computer IS a fashion statement. I bought an iMac and a MacBook partly because it’s beautiful. Opening the packaging left me in awe. I love design and aesthetics and despite the fact computers are the tool I need for my profession, I like them to look good on my living room.

So, yes, packaging makes a difference. It’s part of the user experience, something that Steve Jobs, better than anyone else, soon realized.