LONDON, England – I have on my desk three boxes. One contained the N96 currently residing in my pocket, the other contains the 5310 I’ll start playing with when Comes With Music launches on Thursday and the third is the N85 I’ve got to play with Nokia viNe. Why does all that matter? Well, it’s all to do with the boxes, actually. See, the difference in size, between the N96 and the N85 is huge. Or at least, the N96 box is huge, whilst the N85 isn’t.

It’s been a long while since Nokia announced its decision to change the
size of its boxes, to further reduce its carbon footprint. And today
was the first time I’d had one of the new svelte members in my claws. I
don’t normally write about recyclable cardboard, but I have to make an
exception as the new design is actually quite nice. It feels a lot
tighter, and more compact. A design feature? Perhaps. It’s a good one
if it is. It also becomes frighteningly clear that when you start to
multiply these boxes by thousands, even millions, the impact can be
quite dramatic.

In fact, Nokia says there are 5,000 fewer trucks on the road every
month as a result of the redesign. Pretty remarkable in anyone’s book,
really. Although I have no idea why the N96, released just a few weeks
ago, is still shipping in a portly, oversized space-stealer. After all,
the N85 isn’t *that* much smaller.