Zen and the art of opening an iPhone box

By Tom Vanderbilt

Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki once described with reverence the joy of drinking from a lacquer soup bowl: “There is an extra beauty in that moment between removing the lid and lifting the bowl to the mouth, when one gazes at the still, silent liquid in the dark depths of the bowl.” It is, he wrote, “a moment of trance”.

There is a similar multisensory pleasure and almost ceremonial anticipation in the packaging for Apple’s iPhone – perhaps unsurprising, given Steve Jobs’s passion for Buddhism. In his book “Inside Apple”, Adam Lashinsky describes the “packaging room” at the firm’s headquarters, where for months “a packaging designer was holed up...performing the most mundane of tasks – opening boxes.” The goal? A box with the perfect drag and friction on opening to introduce an enticing pause as you unveil your new phone.