Apple thinks inside the box more than you might imagine

There's attention to detail ... and then there's this type of thing

Network World's iOnApple blogger Yoni Heisler has an interesting post today about a passage from an upcoming book by Adam Lashinsky, called Inside Apple, which depicts the company's legendary attention to detail as something more akin to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In one example illustrating Apple's exhaustive attention to detail, Lashinsky relays how Apple's packaging room at one point was filled with hundreds, yes hundreds, of iPod box prototypes so that Apple could determine which box lent itself towards evoking the emotional response Apple was looking for upon opening up a product for the first time.

I know what my emotional response to that anecdote is supposed to be, namely that it's exactly this type of thing that has made Apple such a phenomenal success.

However, my actual response was quite different.

My actual response was sympathy for the poor Apple employees who had to pretend there was really all that much difference between all those boxes ... and then go home and tell the kids what it was they did at work all day.

• Smartphones
• Wireless
• Apple
• iPod
• packaging