Adam Kos When you think of Apple products, the first thing that might come to mind is the iPhone, or iPad, iPod, or of course the iMac. Thanks to the iconic "i", the identification of such devices is unambiguous. But have you noticed that this label is slowly but surely starting to disappear from new products? Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, AirTag - there is no longer an "i" at the beginning of the product designation. But why is that so? It is not just a simple rebranding, the change is caused by many other, and above all, legal or even economic problems.
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History began with the iMac
It all started in 1998 when Apple introduced the first iMac. Not only did it become a huge sales success and ultimately save Apple from certain demise, it also started the trend of labeling products with the letter "i", which Apple used for its most successful products for years to come. It's rather funny that Steve Jobs wanted to call the iMac "MacMan" until Ken Segall strongly opposed it. And of course we all thank him for that.
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After translating the letter "i", many individuals may think that it means "I" - but this is not the truth, that is, in the case of Apple. The Apple company explained this by saying that the "i" marking was supposed to refer to the then growing phenomenon of the Internet. People could thus connect the Internet + Macintosh for the first time. In addition, "I" also means other things like "individual", "inform" and "inspire".
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Vratislav Holub Why Apple Changed Product Names
Although there is no official response from Apple, there are many apparent reasons why the company dropped the iconic "i". First of all, these are legal problems. Take the Apple Watch for example. As Apple explained, it could not name its smartwatch "iWatch" because the name was already claimed by three other companies in the US, Europe and China. This meant that Apple had to either come up with a new name or risk a lawsuit and pay millions of dollars to use the name.
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This is the same thing that happened with the iPhone. The first "iPhone" was released by Cisco just a few days before the announcement of Apple's iPhone. In order for Apple to use the iPhone name, it had to pay Cisco a large amount of money, which according to some estimates could be as much as $50 million. Similar legal issues arose with iTV, which we all now know as Apple TV.
Another possible reason is that many companies have profited from using "i" in their products. Of course, Apple does not own this letter in any way - although it has tried to trademark this letter. And so "i" can also be commonly used by other companies in the names of their products.
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Apple dropped the "i" wherever possible
The strategy of abandoning the "i" does not only apply to the company's latest products. Apple has also started getting rid of the iconic "i" in most of its apps. For example, iChat changed to Messages, iPhoto replaced Photos. But we still have iMovie or iCloud. However, Apple could have come to this step even after mature consideration, because the "i" in the given titles did not make sense. If it is supposed to mean "internet" then it makes no sense to use it where it is not justified. iCloud could still be iCloud, but why iMovie is still referred to as such, only Apple knows.
Other big tech companies like Microsoft and Google have also changed the name of their popular apps. For example, Microsoft changed Windows Store to Microsoft Store and Windows Defender to Microsoft Defender. Likewise, Google switched from Android Market and Android Pay to Google Play and Google Pay, respectively. As with Apple, this makes it easy to see which company owns the product, while also constantly reminding us of the brand name.
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Amaya Toman Will there be another "i" to come?
Apple doesn't seem to be going back to using it anytime soon. But where it already is, it will probably stay. It would be rather unnecessary to change the names of two of the most famous product names in the history of technology if we were talking about the iPhone and the iPad. Instead, the company will continue to use words like "Apple" and "Air" in its new products.
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Apple now uses Air at the beginning of the name to tell us it means wireless, like with AirPods, AirTags, and AirPlay. In the case of the MacBook Air, the label wants to evoke the simplest possible portability. So slowly say goodbye to "i". Whatever company car comes, it will be an Apple Car and not an iCar, the same goes for virtual and augmented reality glasses and other products.
