Ken Segall: Steve Jobs first considered calling iPhone the ‘Telepod,’ ‘Mobi,’ ‘iPad,’ or ‘Tripod’

“At an event at the University of Arizona’s Department of Marketing, former Apple advertising lead Ken Segall has shared some additional details into the naming behind Apple’s massively popular smartphone,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.

“While Apple ended up calling its industry-changing smartphone the ‘iPhone,’ Apple considered a few other names.,” Gurman reports. “Our own Scott Buscemi was on the ground at the event, and he has shared the details for this article. In addition to iPhone, Apple considered ‘Telepod,’ ‘Mobi,’ ‘Tripod,’ and ‘iPad.'”

Read more in the full article here.

17 Comments

    1. and the “phone” is just a fraction of what the iPhone does.
      and Mac news is just a very small fraction of the news at MDN.

      iTunes is a household name and a worldwide brand, it’d be a MASSIVE mistake to change the name. Any Marketing 101 class will teach you not to mess with a successful brand name.

    2. Jobs never considered those names seriously. His method was to pile up as many suggestions and ideas as possible — however funny those could be — and eventually pick up the best variant.

    3. Did I ever tell you about the time I was in a bar drinking Margaritas with Steve Jobs? He thought he had finally come up with the perfect name. He came up with ” AyayayPhone” and liked it more and more after each Margarita.

  1. Nice link bait, shitbags. The standard design and marketing process where a mulititude of ideas are tossed around and burned away and properties of goods set in happens every gods damned day. But because we are talking about Apple, it’s “Steve Jobs was going to do this” and “Steve Jobs was going to do that”.

    The tech press is a cesspool of talentless hacks.

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