Apple MacBook Pro - Simplicity And Elegance In Packaging

When I first received the MacBook Pro from Vlad, the first thing that impressed me about the package was the Apple branded high quality bag with a rather large slip cord that the MacBook's box came in.

So, the initial impression of the entire packaging was one of elegance.

Once the box was out of the bag, it was not difficult to see that a lot of thought went into the presentation of the MacBook's external packaging.

As much as we may not want to admit it, first impressions can make or break a deal, can really make or break our experiences with a product, or even make or break our initial contact with a prospect.

And, I must admit that Apple has really hit this one out of the park!

Upon opening up the box, the MacBook was laying in a cove of sorts with a black tab wrapped over it that had Designed by Apple in California in white lettering. The box itself being white in colour left no hint of brown cardboard anywhere.

Wow!

Pull up on the tab and the MacBook Pro gets lifted up enough to grab and pull out of the box. The unit itself along with the A/C adapter had a clear plastic wrap around them as protection. The wrap ends had resealable non-stick strips holding them down. So no there was no sticky mess to deal with.

Now, the kicker: The plastic wrap had a distinctive pattern and way about how it was wrapped around the MacBook Pro and the adapter. The pattern reminded me of the days when folks used to take care to wrap a package in the heavy brown paper with the folds just so and the corners buttoned down in a very symmetrical way. Think hospital corners in the sheets here.

Once the MacBook Pro was out of the box and I was able to have a closer look at the unit I was very impressed with its simplicity and elegance. The design of the MacBook is very clean and crisp with every line and curve having a purpose.

There is a very good reason why Mac users identify with their Mac and have a fairly strong attachment to it. It all starts with the unpacking experience. And it truly is an experience.

But then reality came home to roost:

As great as the whole unpacking experience and first impression was, the reality is that our systems, whether Mac or PC, are very complicated machines that sometimes don't behave as we would expect them too.

Not to worry though, I am still very impressed with the MacBook Pro. Apple has done an amazing job putting together a product that folks can get very excited about.

And, they are learning that users need Exchange integration to actually get some work done! ;)

Posted with MarsEdit that does support uploading to Blogger's Picasa Web Albums natively. Now hopefully the use of DIV tags instead of P tags makes the paragraphs look cleaner than the last post. MarsEdit gets the nod as editor of choice for us on the MacBook Pro!

Philip Elder

MPECS Inc.

Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.