It’s perhaps one of the most important letters in the world — but nobody’s entirely sure what it means.
The i at the start of iPhone is one of its defining features. And it mostly refers to “internet”, though not entirely, and the story of how it got there is slightly more complicated.
The naming convention was first introduced with the iMac. Launched in 1998, the computer marked the beginning of the modern Apple.
But that was far from the only meaning of the “i”, Mr Jobs said. During the launch, he showed a slide with a number of different headings: internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire.
“’i' also means some other things to us,” he said. “We are a personal computer company, and although this product is born to network, it also is a beautiful stand-alone product. We are targeting it also for education. They want to buy these. And it is perfect for most of the things they do in instruction.”
The company would go on to brand almost all of its products with the little letter. Software such as iTools and hardware including the iPod all talk on the name. (It still isn’t entirely clear where the rest of the iPod name originated from.)
It would eventually find its place in the name of the iPhone, a product that had a similar effect for Apple as the iMac.
No comments:
Post a Comment