Your experience with some products starts as soon as start you tearing the shrink wrap around them.

This is what happened to me last week. I just bought a MacBook and I had been second guessing my choice since I pressed the “Submit” button on the order form.

A few days later, when I received the package from Apple, I was quite curious to see if my new laptop was worth all the money I paid for it.

The feeling I had when I opened the box was impressive: it was not because the package itself was nice to see, but because there was nothing between me and my laptop. I opened the box and the only thing I saw was my shiny new MacBook, without any additional clutter.

It was totally different from what I was used to: the previous laptop I bought came in a bulky cardboard box and I had to get rid of a ton of “READ THIS FIRST” papers before even being able to see my PC.

Even if it’s not sufficient by itself to make a good product, packaging certainly made a huge contribution with my experience with my new MacBook.

Although I was impressed by the stylish package, being logged in a couple of minutes after opening the box is what contributed most to my good impression.

For those of you that may be questioning, I’m not an Apple fanboy: I’m still spending most of my time on PCs.

Update: I just returned my MacBook to buy a new MacBook Pro, so I’m still waiting for a package from Apple.