Re: How Apple has steadily been dropping the 'i' (which can't be trademarked)

On 2024-05-21 03:18:57 +0000, Enrico Papaloma said:

On 5/20/2024 6:05 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2024-05-20 20:01:37 +0000, Enrico Papaloma said:

 How Apple has steadily been dropping the 'i' (which can't be trademarked)

 The "i' was added partly for the opposite reason. "iPad", "iPhone",
etc. are far easier to trademark than just "Pad" and "Phone", while
still retaining a simple name that tells you what is in the tin (an
"iPhone" is a phone).

 https://www.wired.com/story/the-end-of-iphone/
 It was Segall who persuaded Jobs in 1998 to use "iMac" as a new computer
name instead of the internally-developed and rather dreadful moniker
MacMan. (Thank Segall that there was never such a thing as the ManPhone.)
 The iMac - a then radical and lust-worthy machine devised as a
ready-out-of-the-box gateway to the internet when other computers were
challenging to take online-birthed a long line of Apple "i" products, from
the defunct iBook (a curvy, candy-colored laptop derided in the '90s as
"Barbie's toilet seat") through to Apple's still-current data storage
platform, iCloud.
 Segall, then a copywriter for advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, remains
intensely proud of his 12 years of word-wrangling for Jobs; the 74-year-old
has written two best-selling books on his time working on Apple's
advertising account. And, via a career on the speaking circuit, he has
benefited financially from his intimate association with Apple's little
prefix, which initially merely meant a device was internet-ready.

True, but there are also many other quotes giving various supposed "meanings" for the "i", which evolved over time alongside the various devices, services, and apps which used it. For example:
    “Steve Jobs said the 'i' stands for 'internet, individual, instruct,
     inform, [and] inspire,'”
Originally the "Apple Watch" was going to be called the "iWatch", but Apple ran into issues when they tried to trademark that name:
    "Apple was unable to name the Apple Watch the iWatch because of
     trademark issues in multiple countries, including the U.S., UK,
     Switzerland, and China."
    <https://secureyourtrademark.com/blog/apple-watch-iwatch-trademark/>
There are lots of people who still do incorrectly call it the "Apple iWatch".