“Seemingly cementing a move first hinted at during the World Wide Developers Conference, Apple has filed for a trademark for its OS X operating system but without the “Mac” prefix that has accompanied the name since its inception,” Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.
“The Cupertino-based company initially filed for its trademark in Trinidad and Tobago less than a week after the June 2008 conference, where lobby banners first indicated a split where Apple would distinguish between OS X Leopard, the version of its operating system for traditional computers, and OS X iPhone, the modified platform that supports both its namesake cellphone and the iPod touch,” Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.
“The software label also passed through a southeast Asian trademark office in November, but as of this writing remains under review,” Malley reports. “Apple’s reasons for trademarking at this stage aren’t entirely clear, though the most conspicuous is its current product strategy: as many of its devices are running some variant of the FreeBSD-based software but operating well outside the bounds of ordinary Macs, the company may be under some self-imposed pressure to rebrand its flagship software in a way that allows it to enforce its trademarks without tying itself to a particular software revision or product line.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple should come up with a better name than “OS X iPhone.” One that doesn’t slight iPod touch and every other future non-iPhone device that will employ the OS. Something better than “OS X Mobile” or “OS X Lite” of course, but those names should give you an idea of what we mean. We constantly see articles discussing “iPhone apps” even though the same apps also run on iPod touch. If Apple’s OS were properly named, we’d see articles talking about “‘OS X Mobile’ apps” instead and everyone would know that their device was included.
Also, for quite some time, Apple’s naming guru has suffered from muddled thinking. Why some caps and some lowercase names? iPod touch is constantly incorrectly referred to in the press as “iPod Touch” or, Jobs forbid, “iTouch.” It doesn’t help matters that Apple has “Mac Pro,” but also “Mac mini.” We guess the “Pro” is uppercase because it’s big and the “mini” is lowercase because it’s small? But, then why “MacBook Air?” It makes no sense. Why use “iPod naming convention” for the Mac mini, but no other Macs? Yes, it’s minor, but it’s also inconsistent, which isn’t a good thing for a company that prides itself on – and bills itself as – being consistent down to the most minor details.
@MDN Take
It is consistent. If you haven’t figured out the pattern yet, than you probably don’t know what state The Simpsons live in either.
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MDN-“It makes no sense. It’s minor, but it’s also inconsistent, which isn’t a good thing for a company that prides itself on – and bills itself as – being consistent down to the most minor details.”
Now you know why companies use those boring model numbers. You can’t remember them, but it is sure a lot easier to keep numbers in a consistent pattern than it is for words.
Why no commentary on the potential prospect of Apple readying OSX for Dell’s?
I hope they trademark ‘OS XI’ for the future.
@HMCIV
There is more than one Springfield in the USA
I’m not sure if every one of them has a Powerplant in them or not though.
Well, considering that the various Mac OS X codenames have been big cats, perhaps iPhone OS X codenames should be small cats?
OS X Leopard for Macs.
OS X Oncilla for iPhone and iPod touch.
My vote is OS X Kitten.
Hmmm… I can see it now… OS X Tabby.
@John Gee-
Because Apple isn’t readying OS X (any version) for anything but future Apple products. OS X is the single most valuable piece of property Apple owns and the company is not going to blindly give it away/license it/sell it.
OS X is the most important factor to consider in comparing Apple products to anything else.
OS X Pussy, on the iPhone
Simpsons SPOILER ALERT
Having watched all The Simpsons from short #1 on The Tracey Ullman Show…. all the hints I’ve seen lead me to believe it’s KY.
How about OS X Puddytat?
Is this a sign that Apple is going to license OS X to third parties?
@scott
I just fiured it would be worth a mention since it’s been a running conversation on here.
*figured
And also, iTouch is used by many. It’s as if it was truly named iTouch. Remarkable indeed.
No no no.
OSX Manx!
Trinidad & Tobago – my homeland.
Well obviously, if they were to follow their own naming convention the iPhone version of OS X would be OS x.
The Mac mini is lower-case because that name is a hold-over from the PowerPC days. At the time, that’s how Apple products were named (mostly iPods examples); the other Mac products were iMac, PowerBook, iBook, and Power Mac. The only product name with two words is Power Mac, and you are not going to make the M in Mac lower case. So it was consistent with the new names Apple’s “naming guru” invented.
Since changing the product line to Intel, Apple has been consistent with its new Mac names. They simply kept the two existing names as is, Mac mini and iMac. If they were going to change Mac mini to Mac Mini, they should also change iMac to Mac (to be consistent).
OS X Sea Kitten, for the PETA lovers out there
Yeah, actual Apple news! No more cat names, we need something with some action to it….how about OS X Pounce.
To tell you exactly how important those capitals and lowercase names are…………I never even noticed until MDN pointed it out.
I wonder what happened to the Oneders?
“Why no commentary on the potential prospect of Apple readying OSX for Dell’s?”
Because that would still be ‘OS X Leopard”
Isn’t the reality quite simple? Apple MAY be licensing it out for embedded this or that, but the bottom line is that the OS is referred to generically as OS X, so the trademark is to protect that.