“Apple Inc’s Tuesday launch was a marketing extravaganza stuffed full of gadgets, corporate hyperbole and celebrities of every stripe,” Christina Farr and Jennifer Saba report for Reuters. “One thing was missing: the ‘i’ in front of the Watch.'”
“The company that spends hundreds of millions of dollars marketing and advertising its gizmos does not do things without careful deliberation,” Farr and Saba report. “Some branding experts say Apple chose that foreshortened appellation both to distinguish its first new device in four years and send a message to the public that it was moving into new territory.”
“Marketing chief Phil Schiller once said in court that Apple’s strategy, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars on ads, is to ‘make the product the biggest and clearest thing in advertising,'” Farr and Saba report. “It is a new era,” said Ellen Leanse, a brand strategist and former senior Apple executive. ‘It was a highly confident move that signals, pardon the pun, watch us… It would have been trite to call it the iWatch. It would have been looking backwards,’ she added. ‘This could pave a new path for a product family’ like the Macintosh.”
Read more in the full article here.
i think they did it because they were tired of copyright issues.
Agreed. It’s far harder for other companies to argue about the legitimacy of using “Apple something” as a product name than it is when sticking “i” in front of a word. Many people will refer to it as iWatch anyway, why waste resources getting the name?
Actually it’s much simpler than that.
The “i” era was the Steve Jobs era. New product categories developed and introduced during Steve’s tenure were “i” products: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.
The “Apple” era is the Tim Cook era. New Product categories developed and introduced under Tim Cook’s tenure are the “Apple” products: Apple Pay, Apple Watch, etc.
Expect any new product categories introduced in the next few years to carry the “Apple” logo/word as the first part of the name.
Exactly what I was thinking. I also think the “i” thing gave precedence to too many jokes by idiot Fandroid among others looking to deride Apple. It had served its purpose for a while and now it’s firmly Tim Cook’s era. They’ve done well and more than proved Apple will continue to thrive and prosper.
You;re forgetting AppleTV was under Jobs, not Cook.
Apple TV was (and to some extent, still is) considered a “hobby”. It was declared so by Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs always referred to it as if it were some side experiment. He never thought of it as a distinct product line representative of Apple as a whole.
Apple Pay and Apple Watch are definitely specific (and may become core) product lines of Apple, Inc.
iTV was already trademarked by another company when Apple went to market with the Apple TV. Don’t think they were willing to give it up.
iStuff has been around since the 1998 iMac. It’s outlived its cool factor.
Agree. I wish Apple would just drop the “i” from the Mac name already (it’s long overdue and pretty much meaningless) and return the AIO form to its original name… Macintosh, or simply Mac. Keep the Pro designator for that line.
The only thing really to be said about the Apple Watch is ‘halo effect’. It is about bringing people to the Apple brand who may not already own Apple devices. It is a fashion accessory first, a technology play second, and part of an Eco-system third.
It is a very interesting departure from the norm at Apple, where personalisation is at the heart of the purchase rather than being for accessory companies to come up with cases or stickers to make an item more individual.
The question which many people will want answered is how often in time will Apple refresh the physical design. The unibody MacBook Pro / Air has kept the same physical design for years whereas the iPhone changes every two years. Will we see Watch S or Watch 2 next year (actually, I hope they just call it Watch – 2nd gen).
The apple watch is not a very good halo device since you need an iPhone for connectivity. It is hard to see someone buying an iPhone just to get the watch.
Later iterations may become independent once the tech advances. Then it may act as a halo device.
Same mistake Samsung made.
Except that Samsung made their first Gear so that it was only compatible with the newest hardware (and not even all versions of the newest hardware, as I recall), whereas Apple made the Watch compatible with the 5-series phones as well as the 6-series ones.
Also, I don’t get why people expected this device to work completely independently of a phone. Maybe five or ten years from now, that would be reasonable. But based on today’s technology, the size and battery life demands, and design challenges, it’s impossible to have both a truly useful, marketable device (i.e. something the average person would actually want to buy and wear) AND a completely stand-alone smart watch. Which is why none of the Android options will be successful, whereas the Apple Watch will.
True, but it still depends on a subset of iPhones. I think it needs a generation or two to mature to see if it’s a success. Right now it’s a novelty, time will tell if it becomes a ‘must have’.
Even at version one I think Apple has demonstrated a watch device that’s far more than mere novelty. They only showed the icing on the cake at the recent keynote. I think many will find it compelling come 2015.
The iPhone started off slowly and took a couple generations to take off like gangbusters, BUT it didn’t rely in another device to work properly. The watch is an iPhone peripheral. That’s going to be the major limitation of its marketability. Unless Apple makes it Android compatible it’s only going to appeal to a subset of iPhone users. If Apple is smart, Android compatibility won’t be too far off. It’s what they did with the iPod and Windows and look how that worked out.
They made the iPod work with Windows porting iTunes as well as Safari. But there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell Apple will do anything to make their watch Android friendly, especially since the technology ties into an iPhones. Since I prefer Apple all the way it’s not an issue for me. Having only one foot in the Apple ecosystem seems kinda lame too. Your mileage may vary.
I see your points, but unless there’s some reason for a non-iPhone user to buy one then the Apple Watch will turn out to just be a moderately popular iPhone accessory without much incentive to upgrade often. I think it’s a nice device but i’m not remotely interested in getting one and I’ve had every other iPhone since the original and have been a dedicated Apple customer and promoter for almost 30 years. I see Apple selling a lot of them at first, but I see sales dropping to very moderate levels soon afterward.
Don’t forger most iDevice users are Windows users.
No doubt many, but I haven’t seen any exact breakout figures lately though I’d be curious. Have you?
I don’t recall seeing numbers, but I do recall the phrase “vast majority”.
The iPhone and iPad are far more popular than the Mac and most of the iDevice users I know use Windows. I try to convert the heathens, but with only limited success. Unsurprisingly, the cost of Macs is the Big issue.
It may not be so moderate a sales figure if more iPhone buyers get the watch as well. Sales to others who use different phones may not matter. The Galaxy Gear Watch only worked with the Note 3 and so they made no attempt either to be ubiquitous. You are being honest now about not getting one (as many have said) but when they are out and in the Apple Stores and you look at it you may well feel differently then.
I don’t anticipate sales dropping. If anything I see them increasing and the ultimate seduction with Version 2. I would agree with you about other failed watch effarts. The difference here is it’s Apple and them making a much more compelling reason for the device to exist than the poseurs who haven’t a clue nor the wherewithal to create anything other than a pointless ill-designed and executed gadget.
I hope you’re right and i’m wrong.
I think it will work very well, since it will enable ApplePay for all the older iPhones that do not contain the NFC hardware. I think iOS 8 is slated for every iphone starting with the 4S. That’s a pretty big demand base.
Any idea how many iPhone users there are in the world.
Give your head a shake.
It’s cute, I like the interface, but $350+ to save me the hassle of looking at my phone? No thanks.
It is true that the Apple Watch needs an iPhone tethered to it for full functionality. First, Verizon is practically begging customers to trade in any functioning iPhone (4 and newer) for credit towards a new iPhone 6 or 6+, so that should make the go towards growing the base of users with the newest phone grow faster. So the base of iPhone users will be able to use the watch fully (Apple Pay, etc.). I also wonder if at some point Apple would make an Android app that would enable an Android phone to work with an Apple Watch. That would be an interesting game changer, not unlike iTunes for Windows. Thoughts?
i like the idea of them getting rid of the “i” and use instead. better to advertise the company name & logo. get people saying apple all the time instead of “i”.
Yep. I used to refer to myself as “Jim from ________” when making business calls. Several years ago, I changed that to “Jim at ________” so that it puts my email address in their head. I have always hosted my own mail and domain name, and have always been Jim@_______. Good call.
I think the visual of the Apple logo in front of the product name is a much better marketing tool. Everywhere 🍎Pay is excepted will have that visual as a logo. It much better differentiates between Apple and all the wannabes.
There’s no mistaking an apple!
pay, watch, and— the next major disruption, the movie watching experience?— tv — it’s cool to use the shift/alt/K key combination and get the Apple logo instead of having to spell it out in English (so boring).
Except that some of us see your post as:
pay, watch…
Those blanks don’t convey much when I’m not on this site.
They show fine on my iPad…
Apple TV isn’t called iTV because they don’t own the trademark in UK where Independent TV is the commercial network.
I bet some country is a sticking point with iWatch and they either will or will not have sorted it by the release date. (wasn’t it Apple Phone at first ).
— it really stands out in a paragraph of text. Awesome branding!!!
WATCH
PAY
TV
WHATS NEXT?
Maybe SEX. Using the next-generation taptic technology.
🙂
Whatever it is you can expect that they will upset the apple cart.
THE people …. you got it just right
Watch Pay TV ….
Drop your cable TV, keep your cable Internet. Buy a digital antenna (and a digital – analog converter if you still have older TVs like me) to get the local affiliates of the Networks.
Unless you are 70 miles from civilization (Hi!). Cable is still pretty important in my neck of the woods, but I’m still doing what I can to stream as much as I can to my Apple TV. (Sorry, but I also have to spell it out – Windoze at work and all.)
Plus “iWatch” sounds like “I watch”. That would provide too much fun for the apple haters. Apple people are not watchers, they are doers.
What’s NEXT. Maybe an beats total music experience? —including doing to headphones and car/living room audio sound system what the Mac Pro did to the desktop computer—totally reinvent it all! I would ♥︎ an designed music sound system experience for my car! and I would also ♥︎ a love/heart icon the same size as the icon— to further promote and brand ♥︎ instead of fear, hate violence and war— ‘love is all you need’/’give peace a chance’— and a peace sign. I would ♥︎ to redesign the whole pictograph alphabet (its so corny now)— but first things first.
Apple could do worse than to buy up Harmon Kardon who designed and made the original clear SoundSticks and subwoofer; having a well-regarded audio manufacturer in-house, along with Beats for personal audio, combined with CarPlay, would make for an incredibly attractive combination.
There are also trademark problems with “iWatch” across various countries. Apple Watch solves that problem.
And also it will sells Macs.
After all there is no Windoze font with the “” moniker in them…
I call this a clever, clever change!
try this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Type-the-Apple-Logo-%28Mac-and-Windows%29
tho it might not show up for everybody else
The small “i” was innovative 15 years ago, when we were still running OS 9. Nowadays the small “i” is insipid.
People seem to forget that a few months ago, a watch maker (pardon me for not recalling the name) stated that they won the trademark “iWatch” and if Apple used it then they would most certainly sue. It seems to me that Tim Cook and Apple didn’t have a choice but to name it Apple Pay. Also let’s not forget the Apple TV (Steve called it a hobby, but Tim Cook still added it to Apple’s online store..). There is possibly a logical explanation for the name, people just need to research and not jump to the first reason that sounds ‘logical’.
The explanation is much simpler than that. Once Americans started pronouncing the 13th element as aluminium instead of aluminium like the rest of the world, a glut of unused letter ‘i’s started building up. Steve Jobs saw this huge pile of unused letters and decided to recycle them by adding one to every Apple product name.
Two factors have now made this practice unnecessary. One is that around a billion letter ‘i’s have now been used up on various IOS devices and iMacs. The other is that Jony Ive is making Americans aware of how the word is pronounced when speaking true English, rather than American English.
Damn spell check – It won’t let me mis-spell the word aluminium as aluminum and even after I clicked on the ignore spelling, it still put the second ‘i’ back in.