RIP iWatch: Tim Cook kills “i” at Apple Watch release date event
By setting the Apple Watch release date, Tim Cook has officially laid the letter “i” to rest. The last opportunity for Apple to relent and call its smartwatch the “iWatch” came and went during today’s media event, in which he finalized the details of the product which hadn’t yet been put in place. There was still some outside expectation that Apple might acquire the iWatch trademark from Swatch and go ahead with that name after all, but there is no chance of that now. So what does the shift in naming mean for Apple going forward?
After adopting the name iMac in 1998, Apple quickly phased it in on other products including the iBook in 1999 and the iPod in 2001, and later the iPhone in 2007. The name lasted one more cycle with the iPad in 2010. But at this point it’s on its way out. iPhoto is about to become Photos, and the product we were all expecting to be called the iWatch is instead called the Apple Watch.
Part of that comes from the fact that, after seventeen years, the iName has simply been played out and is no longer thought of as new or futuristic. But there is also the fact that competitors like Google are adopting a different name strategy in which their own brand is in the title of every product, such as Google Play, which gives the brand additional exposure when third parties advertise their products as being available in it.
Accordingly, Apple appears to be shifting toward names like “Apple Watch” which not only inject its brand directly into the product’s name, but also suggests that it’s the default product in its category. Don’t go expecting Apple to ditch names like iPhone or iPad just yet, as those have become brands of their own at this point. But the Apple Watch name is a sign that upcoming Apple products will simply be called Apple Car and the Apple Television Set, not iCar or iTV. Apple Watch preorders begin April 10th, and the Apple Watch release date is shortly thereafter.
Jerry Miller