So I spend a few days buried in Garageband, away from K2 and BB, and I almost miss out on this absolute gem of a video. What if Microsoft had designed the box for the iPod? You know how something is ‘funny cuz it’s true’? Well they invented that remark for that video.
Also of note, the ‘old’ Lick Me, I’m a Macintosh article about the art of packaging design.
That most companies which should get this, still don’t… Well it’s beyond me. There’s just nothing like a little Apple porn to get my juices flowing.
Update: So, in a peculiar twist of events, it turns out Microsoft made the video themselves!
PS: Now we’ve got the big ol’ hate stick out, let’s bash MS over the head with it one more time. Viva la revolution!
PPS: Now that we’re at it, and I’ll spare you the uh-it’s-viral-flash-site, I just sat through a 5-minute video for Origami, and I couldn’t be less interested in the thing. Which is paradoxical, because I’d love a small tablet computer, but not only is it pretty ugly, it’s also huge!
Update: Microsoft says:
“While Origami is a concept we’ve been working on with partners, the video you have seen is a year old and represents our initial exploration into this form factor, including possible uses and scenarios,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. #
Yup, it’s true, Apple seems better at designing than Microsoft.
But they also cater to a different market. My point is that the difference in design and marketing might be related to choices of segment rather than ability or craftmanship.
If you’re putting your product in a price range where it will face a bucket load of similar products, years and years and years of shelf-setup experience has taught, carefully, that a “new” sticker on a box makes it obvious to the consumer, who is facing a choice between 50 similar products, that this, indeed, may be newer and hence, in one form or another, better. The sticker isn’t there because someone thought it looked better; more likely it’s there because that shifts more products across the counter in that particular price range.
If you’re putting your design in a price range where there are almost no competition, you don’t need to stand out as much. Just an observation, anyway.
Needing to and wanting to being to entirely different things for sure. Do I want to buy products by the company which doesn’t feel its products are worth the effort? (That’s a rhetorical question mind you, the answer is no :).
You can rationalize away at Microsoft’s decision to do what they do, but I don’t remember the last time I met anyone actively lusting for an MS product or looking forward to an MS announcement (short of the 360, which is a whole other chapter which I’ll stay out of).
And dammit, that warrants a fair amount of poking in my book.
While we’re on the topic of iPods, the following link should appeal to your taste (:
http://web.mac.com/christianwedlock/iWeb/Christian/fake.mov
And if you go to the same video on google video you can actually download a version for your ipod or get a link to the original windows media file.