Have you ever wondered what the “i” in iPhone stands for? Here’s the answer!
Apple names its devices with the prefix i. We have the iMac, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad which have had the ubiquitous “i” prefix since the release of the first iMac in 1998. Have you ever wondered what the “i” in all the prefixes stands for? Why does Apple prefer to name its products starting with an “i”.
Well, there have been many answers to this question. In fact, last week, the internet was abuzz with Apple fans remembering what exactly the “i” in Apple stands for. We’ve briefly attempted to answer the question.
In 1998, at an Apple event, Steve Jobs introduced the iMac. Jobs explained the relationship between “i” and “Mac.”.
“The iMac comes from marrying the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of the Macintosh,” he said. “We aim to make this the No. 1 computer in use because consumers tell us they want a computer that’s easy and fast to get online.”
In 1998, the “i” in the iMac stood for the Internet. Jobs later stated what else the “i” stands for at Apple:
Besides the Internet, the Apple prefix also stands for individual, instruct, inform and inspire. It should be noted that Apple did not have the Internet in mind when it named the iPod, and the Internet in the “i” came much later.
When the iPhone was announced in 2007, one of its three core components was internet communication, bringing the “i” back to the original intended meaning of the Internet. (The other two cores were music and phone calls.)
Since then, the “i” for Internet has lost its meaning, as all Apple products now have some form of Internet connectivity. Although it dropped the “i” prefix while creating the SmartWatch and TV sets, instead of iWatch and iTV, we have Apple Watch and Apple TV, sooner or later Apple will return to its “i” because that’s what sells!
