Given the attention to detail that goes into the packaging for Apple products – witness the number of YouTube videos posted as paeans to the whole ‘unboxing ‘ process of every new gadget – it is perhaps unsurprising that Apple has now turned its attention to how it can improve the paper bag. 

A luxury paper carrier bag made out of at least 60% post-consumer content paper to be more precise, as detailed in US patent application number 2016/0264304A1. 

The mind boggles at the level of complexity involved, as a brief glance at the drawings
will attest. 

Helpfully, Apple outlines the background to this ground-breaking development, and states: “Bags are often used for containing items. For example, retail bags may be used to contain items purchased at a retail store.”

Apple being Apple, there is of course some clever and innovative thinking at play here, including a handle formed from knitted paper fibres so it feels soft, more like a shoelace. 

Quite frankly we are more excited about getting our hands on one of these bags than on a new iPhone.