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But their customers would quickly spot that. In fact, other companies now get close to / match apple's packaging attention to detail, but the rest of the customer experience itself rarely matches that first impression.

So the box matters; and the product; and the customer service. Focussing on just the product is missing the big picture.

Faulty observation(?)

The box matters to some people including me, it is, after all, part of the package that you buy, and the most visible one.

That does not mean that I would buy worthless product just because it has a great box. It just means that I appreciate work spent on the box design, too.

…the fact that the behaviour you describe is precisely not how Apple works is the reason I am their customer.