Apple Stickers
A five-decade-long tradition has come to an end.
With the launch of the new M4 iPad Pro & M2 iPad Air, Apple has decided to dispense with offering Apple Stickers inside their product boxes moving forward. Deferring to their "environmental goals" of progressing towards plastic-free packaging, Apple has ended the longstanding practice of including stickers inside the box of new Apple products. I was devastated!
Okay, I wasn't devastated, but I was disappointed to hear these iconic stickers disappearing from the unboxing experience. They were more than just stickers; they were a unique part of the Apple experience. It was nice to get stickers, and it was even more special if they came in a colour different than their iconic white, including Space Grey, Black, Gold, or colour matched with the new iMac. However, colour matching wasn't always consistent; you would get Space Grey stickers with a Space Grey MacBook Air but white stickers with a Space Grey iPad. Nonetheless, they were a small touch that made each unboxing feel special.
Stickers amassed over the year from buying new Macs, iPods, versions of Mac OS X, iPhones, and more…
The stickers came in all sorts of sizes. As a general rule of thumb: the bigger the box, the bigger the stickers. The Macs had the biggest stickers, while products like the diminutive iPod shuffle had a single sticker about the size of a quarter (about an inch in diameter). The stickers could be found bundled with Apple products, from iPods to new boxed versions of Mac OS X to iPhones, Macs, and iPads. However, not all Apple products included stickers: cables, chargers, and accessories like cases, keyboards, covers, Apple Pencils, headphones, Mac Pro wheels, etc., didn't include stickers inside the box. You could always count on getting an Apple sticker when purchasing an iPod, Mac, iPhone, or iPad, but knowing if you were getting them with other products was less certain: you got an Apple sticker with your HomePod but not with your AppleTV, Apple Watch, or Vision Pro. How these decisions were made is beyond me.
The earliest Apple stickers from 1977. Source
I was also surprised to learn that Apple Stickers are not a recent phenomenon. I recall finding them with my earliest Apple products in the early 2000s, but stickers have been bundled with Apple hardware since the 1970s. Back then, Apple's size, stature, and cultural impact were very different than today, so the stickers likely served as part marketing strategy and part badge of honour among loyal Apple faithful. As Apple grew in popularity, the stickers developed a cachet. Seeing an Apple sticker meant you were in the minority of people with an iPod, iMac, or one of the first iPhones. People proudly affixed them on their vehicles like parents put "my kid's an honour role student" bumper stickers on them. I've seen them stuck on cars, notebooks, Windows PCs, music instruments, water bottles, and filing cabinets; you get the idea.
Apple sticker on my first car - that sticker stuck on & weathered the elements for over 16 years.
However, as someone who has owned his fair share of Apple products over the past three decades, the stickers began accumulating. One became three, which grew into over a dozen Apple Stickers over the years. I had collected so many that I ran out of places to put them. I also grew older, so the idea of adorning my non-Apple things with Apple stickers to match my Apple things began feeling gauche. Apple is also a very different company today than in the '90s or early 2000s, so the meaning of seeing an Apple Sticker has also changed. And then, of course, there's the environment and Apple's intention to curb the use of plastics. I rolled my eyes at this statement initially, but Apple sells hundreds of millions of products annually, so even removing a single sheet of plastic adds up to make a sizeable impact on a global scale. Removing just 2 Apple Stickers from the iPhone alone saves nearly 400 tons of plastic stickers from being created and thrown out or never used.
Learning from posts and online polls, most people (64%, according to a recent survey by John Gruber) supported the decision to end the stickers. I thought there would be riots in the street at Apple's decision, but most people expressed good riddance to stickers they got and either threw out or never actually used. And the more I thought about it, the more I was reminded of the dozens of stickers tucked away in the back of my closet for the past three decades that have gone unused, and my mind slowly began to change.
But I'm still mad about it.
A post by 9to5Mac reported that Apple Stores got a limited quantity of stickers available, on request, to people purchasing new Apple products, and that more can be ordered by the store.
But when I went to the store to pick up my iPad Pro last week and asked about the stickers, the couple staff I interacted with had no idea what I was talking about and just gave me a couple blank gift cards instead.
