Environment

Apple has underlined the key role of packs for its iconic gadgets in a patent application in which it said bad packaging could damage the image of a well-designed product.

Publication of the patent came as it also emerged that the technology giant has turned to environmentally friendly starch-based trays in the boxes for its latest iPhone, which launched last month.

In the patent application for the iPod range, which was filed 12 months ago but only published last month, the electronics giant described consumers of handheld electronic devices as "discriminating and savvy", which led to "fierce competition" for brand loyalty.

Apple said packaging served to "generate consumer interest and project the image and brand of the producer", adding it could "diminish from the aura of a well-designed product to present it to consumers in a standard cardboard box".

The patent, which lists Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs among the iPod's inventors, includes the transparent packaging that gives the impression that the product is floating by suspending it above a background.

Meanwhile, the new iPhone 3G is being packaged in cardboard boxes with a recyclable starch inlay made by Dutch firm PaperFoam.

The firm claimed the starch-based packaging had "very low" carbon emissions and energy use in production compared with plastic, although would not comment on the number of packs supplied to Apple.

PaperFoam was established in 1998 to fine-tune the injection-moulding technology to produce potato starch-based packaging. By 2004, more than 150m PaperFoam trays were being produced commercially and the firm added a second production line in 2006.

A bite of Apple
• Product and packaging design is one of four key areas of Apple's environment policy
• The others are manufacturing, energy efficiency and recycling
• The latest pack for the 20" iMac uses 66% less plastic and 42% less paper than the previous edition
• The newest iPod Classic uses 35% less packaging by weight and 82% by volume than the original