Unboxing Fetish

No doubt, you are wondering what an "Unboxing Fetish" is. I know I did when I first heard the term, which by the way was maybe 10 minutes ago. The term refers to people who take lots of pictures documenting the unboxing of new items. My first reaction, of course, was denial. I mean, it does sound freaky. On the other hand, I did take pictures as I was unboxing the MacBook, but it's not like I do that with everything. So I started thinking about it, and the idea of sharing pictures of unboxing the MacBook did seem rather goofy. After all, I'm certainly not the first one to do so, and many others have already "experienced" this event. So why bother? Well, the point of this blog is, as you'll recall, to chronicle my return to Apple Land, and part of that is noting how the Apple Experience differs from the Windows Experience, and even the simple act of unboxing revealed a large gap. So if this makes me an Unboxing Fetishist, then I guess I am. Labels...why must we always apply labels to people? Can't we all just get along?

Alrighty then. Around 9:30A, FedEx shows up on my doorstep with a box for me. After signing for the package, I look down to find a much smaller box than I was expecting. You see, I have never seen a modern Mac in its boxed state (see also Justification for Unboxing Fetish). So for the many Windows users out there who wish to avoid becoming Unboxing Fetishists, the following pictures are for you. The shipping box is a simple, unassuming box, that isn't much bigger than the product box, which is safely wedged in there with environmentally friendly cardboard corner supports. No huge pieces of styrofoam to wrestle out or packing peanuts to litter the floor.



Now the thing that makes the shipping box noteworthy is its efficient use of materials. There's just enough space for fall protection and not much more. By contrast, a certain PC manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, shipped a notebook in a box that was easily three times the size of this box in volume, and included a large box for the power supply and CDs which was largely empty and pretty much unnecessary if you ask me. I give Apple props for their packaging. The actual product box is even smaller and looks to be only somewhat larger than the MacBook itself. It gives the impression of being as big as it needs to be and no bigger.



Looking inside, the contents are arranged very compactly and neatly. A foam pad on the lid provides cushioning and holds the MacBook in place. The MacBook is wrapped in a thin sleeve to protect it from scratches, and it lies on top of a shallow molded plastic tray containing the power supply, extension cord, video adapter, Apple Remote, and package containing the software DVDs and manual. Apple had enough foresight to include a small paper tab underneath the MacBook to make it easy to lift it out of the box. Then they cut a tab in the software package sleeve so that you can pull on it to conveniently remove the package from its tray.



Another big difference from my experience with Windows computers is that all the Apple accessories are bound with re-usable plastic bands. This is a huge improvement over those twist ties that often tear up your fingers. On the whole, I think it's quite possible to toss every last bit of packaging into next week's recycle bin. At least I could if I weren't a fanatic about holding on to packaging just in case. It's not a fetish so much as OCD, but it has served me well on more than one occasion.

That pretty much concludes the Unboxing Fetish. For those of you who don't know what the MacBook looks like, here it is freshly opened along with the accessories in their bound state.



Next stop, powering it on.