The appeal of good packaging…
For a long time, Apple has simply done packaging 'right,' especially for the iPod.
Although the packaging for iPods isn't the flashiest on the shelf, it is a marvel of simplicity and amazing design, like the machine itself. The experience continues inside the box, where it seems the iPod engineers must have been involved--everything has a place, and space is never wasted. I still recall opening the first iPod I ever bought, fascinated by the multi-foldout design that let so much stuff fit in such a compact space. As a matter of fact, that box is still on my shelf. But this post isn't about the inside of the box, it's about the outside of the box.
iPod packaging is clean, well thought out, and almost spartan when compared to similar products from others. Where competitor X will have multiple font sizes and colors, huge blocks of text, splashes of varying color and style, and legal mumbo jumbo, the iPod box simply tells you what's inside in a few words and images. It stands out because it's not garish and overbearing, unlike everything else.
Which is what makes this video parody (alternate lower-quality link), in which Microsoft redesigns the iPod's box, so amazingly funny. Forget that it's even Microsoft being parodied; it could be nearly any of the other major players in the technology business. This spot is very well put together, and to me, it really demonstrates how very hard it must be to go simplistic and clean when everyone is probably pushing quite hard to "fill that empty space with something!"
And no, I don't normally post just links to other things, but this one is so well done, it really is worth watching!