Comment: Pass the parcel

By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 28 Jun 2002 at 15:59

The developer companies may sell software, but the packaging that clogs our shelves is nothing more than hot air, argues Stewart Mitchell.

Good things come in small packages - or so the expression goes - which would mean most of the software sold today is absolute pants. What could come in a simple hinged CD case is, instead, included in a plastic tray, a cardboard sleeve, a cardboard box and then a cellophane wrapper.

While the marketing men at Microsoft and other vendors talk about shrink-wrapped software that appears on shop shelves around the world, the boxes for the software is anything but shrunk.

In fact, if CDs came in similar packaging Virgin Megastore would have to be more of a Gigastore to accommodate half its catalogue and fill sites would soon be overflowing with excess cardboard, sleeves, plastic trays. To put it simply, there's no need for such bulk.

Every time a company or prosumer upgrades or installs a new piece of software they're confronted with a disposal problem. Maybe it's not such a problem for home users - there's less software in this environment, but imagine the mess created on a 500-user installation. Many IT departments keep the manuals and licensing agreements, but throw all packaging out. The packaging involved is enough to fill several industrial bins and wastes man hours.

The boxes, many as big as a breeze block, used to have some sort of justification in that they also contained a manual and trouble-shooting guide. Now that much of that's also contained on the media within the box, there seems little excuse for the box to remain.

It's all too common for buyers to walk into the local store, pick up an enormous cardboard box the size of a briefcase and take home their new software. Only upon opening the new package does the customer discover that, in fact, the software is simply a CD-ROM.

In the software companies' defence, the motivations behind the large boxes are at least twofold. First, the software companies want shelf space; a large box takes up more room and is thus more visible to browsing customers. A row of ten product boxes will fill a shelf and act as a display for the developing companies - that's the theory.

It also acts to increase customer value perception. Many people, the marketing mantra goes, might feel aggrieved spending serious cash on something that comes in the same format as a music single. It looks like a large lump outlay for a tiny package. But surely that sense of grievance is only going to increase when they remove the software from the capacious wrapping.

Obviously, anyone with a penchant for the environment would argue such marketing measures can't be justified.

But the waste aspects don't finish with the mountain of cardboard and plastic created with every new release of packaged software. Many people - quite rightly considering the lengths some companies go to if problems arise later - keep all packaging and documentation. So a simple piece of software can take up an enormous amount of IT department real estate. It seems bizarre that when companies are constantly trying to reduce the footprint of servers and screens that the Trojan horses of colourful cardboard seem to be increasingly clogging the arteries of IT departments until it's jettisoned.

Software was supposed to reduce waste (remember the paperless office syndrome) but amid wasteful packaging the goal appears elusive. While software companies claim their packaging is recycled and recyclable, in practice most ends up taking a spin in the wheelie bin.