People have been left gobsmacked after learning what the ‘i’ in iPhone actually stands for 26 years after the first i-branded product was introduced to the world
The company has been around for almost 50 years – but people are only just learning about the ‘secret message’ it has been sending to its customers. Originally launched as Apple Computer Company in 1976, the tech giant is simply recognised today as Apple – as it has become one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
Its success story began on April 1, 1976 when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne worked together to market Steve Wozniak’s Apple I personal company. From there, the company was incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak one year later. However, in 1985, Steve Jobs left Apple to form NeXT and Steve Wozniak withdrew to concentrate on other ventures.
But with Apple just weeks away from bankruptcy in 1997, it bought NeXT to entice Steve Jobs to return and transform the company. He introduced the iMac to the world in August 1998 before inventing the iPod in October 2001, iPhone in January 2007, and iPad in January 2010.
However, although the product names have been in use for 26 years, customers have been questioning why the ‘i’ is so important, with one Reddit user asking: “What is meant by ‘i’ in iPhone, iPad and iMac?” According to a 1998 Apple Back on Track Keynote, while introducing the iMac, Steve Jobs allegedly said the ‘i’ represents five major words – “internet, individual, instruct, inform and inspire”.
According to Engadget, Steve Jobs didn’t like the name iMac and wanted to name his new computer MacMan instead – but advertising creative director Ken Segall talked him out of it. A statement reads: “Ken worked for a long time with Steve Jobs and his company, trying to name this new groovy computer. Segall hit on the name “iMac” early on, but Jobs didn’t like it, and didn’t like any of the other names offered as well.
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“He had one name that he liked, he told Segall ‘If you can’t beat MacMan, that’s what it’s gonna be.’ Eventually, Jobs relented, but Segall says that he never officially agreed, of course. Because he’s Steve Jobs. One day, iMac was just the name, ‘and that was the end of the story’.”
Commenting on the ‘i’ in Apple products, one user said: “I thought it always meant that it is ‘My Pod, or my Phone’.” Another user added: “It’s not about what it means, but how it makes you feel. It’s meant to invoke.”
A third user said: “I thought ‘I am the ‘i’ in iPhone’ – as it’s so intuitive to use like I am the phone. So iPhone.” One more user added: “Fun fact: Steve Jobs originally wanted to call it the MacMan rather than iMac. We could have been living in a world of the Apple MacMan and PodMan and PhoneMan and TunesMan and PadMan.”
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