“The name of Apple’s three brand new iPhones may have been revealed – and with them some hints at the future of the phone,” Andrew Griffin writes for The Independent. “Apple’s line-up will be more complicated than ever this year, with three phones being released at once in a way Apple has not done before. There will be an updated version of the iPhone X, a bigger version of that same phone, and a cheaper model that lies in the middle in terms of size but leaves out many of the more premium features.”
“That complicated line-up has also led to other kinds of difficulties, like what to name the phones,” Griffin writes. “Until the iPhone X, Apple progressed on a relatively obvious route of simply increasing the number in a phone’s name, or adding an ‘s’ to it, but that is much harder with the current naming scheme.”
“Apple is in fact going to be adding an ‘s’ to the name, it appears. But that is where the obvious parts of the naming line-up end, with three phones each taking interesting monikers according to various leaks,” Griffin writes. “First up is the iPhone XS, which is the updated version of the current iPhone and will feature much of the same design. This name is a little confusing – the ‘X’ is pronounced ’10,’ but the S is pronounced as a letter… it has already drawn mockery for the fact it sounds like ‘excess,’ which is an interesting association to make for one of the most expensive mainstream phones in the world.”
“Then comes the larger version of the iPhone XS – according to multiple reports, the iPhone XS Max,” Griffin writes. “And last – though probably revealed first at Apple’s keynote – is the cheaper phone, which is rumoured to be called ‘iPhone Xc.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has never been very consistent or great with their product naming. If these are the names, they suck, too. Won’t impact sales in the least.
Good Jobs, save for the first one (and even that was horrifically misnamed) Apple’s iPhone naming scheme (charitably; there is none) has always been and looks to remain awful.
iPhone Xs? Ugh. The great unwashed think X is a letter not a number and so now it’ll be “iPhone Excess.” Sure, you can play with marketing slogans, but it’s needlessly complicated. iPhone Xs Max? Seriously? iPhone XC? For cross country runners, we guess. Gag.
Apple, just name them as so:
• 5.8-inch iPhone (2018)
• 6.1-inch iPhone (2018)
• 6.5-inch iPhone (2018)There. That wasn’t difficult at all. Don’t overthink it. K-I-S-S. No Pluses. No Maxes. No Pros or minis or stupid self-defeating “S,” “E,” or “C” letters.
The general public knows nothing of LCD vs. OLED. The 6.1-inch LCD model doesn’t need a different name.
That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. — Steve Jobs
SEE ALSO:
What to expect from Apple’s big ‘Gather Round’ special event next week; plus what Apple should name their next iPhones – September 6, 2018
Apple, enough with the stupid iPhone ‘S’ naming already – September 16, 2015
Commented ad nauseam, but it’s still a goodie:
XsMax for (early) Xmas.
It’s funny — everyone is reading the Xs as “excess”.
Am I the only one who thinks Xs reads as “extra small?”
I read it as ‘ten s’. I can’t get over all the mean girl snark over an effing product name. It’s like 2010 all over again. Remember the iPad naming ‘controversy’? Amazing. The human race deserves extinction.
The thought of the millions Apple have been spending on the morons working in marketing makes me want to cry ( or puke).
This whole convoluted naming system for iPhones began under Jobs, with the iPhone 3GS.
Yes, and if this ridiculous mess is accurate it just goes to show you they also can’t fix anything either because this naming convention is worse than anything to date
People are stupid beyond belief. All this hand wringing over the names is truly pathetic, especially when Apple’s iPhone naming conventions have been consistent for 10 years.
As long as they keep selling and sending Apple stock northward they can call it the iPhone TRD or iPhone SUX for all I care.
Great “translation” for the nuttiness of naming!
Btw, where’s Jony’s need for “thin” (essential) when it comes to naming?
It is the Age of Performa.
Does this mean that the fourth version of the XS will be named XS-IV (pronounced “excessive”)?
/s
^ no pun intended
No matter. I’ll call my next iPhone … Max.
I don’t know why Apple has so much difficulty with naming their products. At the very least, try to have consistency across your product lines.
Small and light = Product name followed by “Air” or “Mini”
Regular = Product name only
Larger, more powerful with additional features = Product name followed by “Pro”
Which gives you:
iPhone Air of iPhone Mini / iPad Air or iPad Mini / MacBook Air
iPhone / iPad / MacBook / iMac
iPhone Pro / iPad Pro / MacBook Pro / iMac Pro / Mac Pro
And when there are multiple sizes within a single category, simply use the size in the name the way Apple already does with MacBooks and iMacs.
Apple can’t even create an intelligent name. What a mess.
Eddy must have been involved !