iPhone should be rebranded, says the man behind the i prefix

The man responsible for the i prefix in Apple products says that the convention is now meaningless, and that the iPhone should be rebranded.

That would see a change of name for the iPhone, iPad, and iMac – a transition which Apple accidentally began back in 2007 …

Ken Segall: The man behind the i branding

Ken Segall was the ad agency creative director chosen by Steve Jobs to work first on NeXT, and later on Apple. It was a role he filled for 12 years.

Segall has many Apple claims to fame, including creative director of the Think Different ad campaign and the famous Crazy Ones commercial. But arguably his biggest impact was in coming up with i prefix for Apple products.

That began in 1998, when Apple was working on a radically new and friendly home computer with a Jony Ives translucent design. Internally, Apple referred to the device as the MacMan. Segall urged Apple to use an i prefix to play up the then-new Internet connectivity offered by the device. That device, of course, launched as the iMac.

The i prefix became a staple, with the iBook, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Apple’s slow branding transition

Apple began transitioning away from the i prefix back in 2007, with the launch of the Apple TV. This had been widely expected to be branded the iTV.

That move, however, was likely an accidental one. ITV was already the name of a TV network in the UK, and it would have been virtually impossible to use the branding for that reason. Apple did, of course, revert to the i branding when the iPad launched three years later in 2010.

Perhaps the first deliberate choice to transition away from the i prefix was the launch of the Apple Watch. That too had been expected to be called the iWatch, and we can be pretty sure that this was Apple’s plan for some time, as even CEO Tim Cook slipped up and called it that in 2014.

Segall says the iPhone should be rebranded

Wired reports that Segall now thinks it’s time for Apple to drop the rest of the i branding.

Segall wants to kill his branding baby. He doesn’t think Apple should keep the prefix.

“The ‘i’ needs to go,” he says. “It’s now meaningless. Sure, [Jobs] built [Apple] around it, but remember, the ‘i’ has always been a sub-brand. There might be marketing experts who say Apple would be crazy to drop the prefix—it’s still in front of some of the greatest brands ever—but it can’t be protected, and for too long there have been companies with ‘i’ internet-connected things, and that’s an issue for Apple, known for innovation.”

While he doesn’t say so explicitly, the implication is that the iPhone should become the Apple Phone. This would bring it in line with the Apple TV, Apple Watch, and (technically) Apple Vision Pro – though nobody outside Apple Park and Apple Stores ever calls it that.

9to5Mac’s Take

I’m generally opposed to throwing away a perfectly good brand name (also looking at you, WordPress, with the stupidly-named Jetpack app). However, if anyone has the marketing clout to pull it off successfully, Apple does, and I could certainly see Phone or Apple Phone as a good replacement.

What’s less clear is how to rebrand the iPad and iMac. Apple Pad just seems wrong, and there are many Apple Macs.

What are your views? Do you agree with Segall that it’s time to lose the i? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Photo: Apple