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It’s hard to imagine that any of us would choose to buy a device called ‘Telepod’, ‘Tripad’ or ‘Mobi’ over the iPhone, but it turns out Apple did consider those names before settling on the one we all know and love. Also under consideration, was ‘iPad’, a name Apple chose to bank for a later date, 9to5Mac reports.
The naming revelation was made at an event at the University of
Arizona’s Department of Marketing, where Apple’s former head of
advertising revealed that the company toiled over several names before
settling on iPhone.
Apple’s original killer device was the iPod, and it seems the company’s executives decided it would be best to leverage that branding for its new phone.
While the iPad moniker was cast aside during the iPhone’s naming, it’s obviously still around — now surviving as the name for the iPhone’s bigger brother. Steve Jobs previously revealed that Apple was working on the tablet before the phone, but ended up prioritising the phone.
The ‘Telepod’ name, according to Segall, was considered because of its futuristic twist on the word ‘telephone’. I for one am glad execs didn’t choose this name, as it sounds like some naff gadget from a cheap and cheesy sci-fi movie.
That wasn’t the worst of the four names in contention though, with ‘Mobi’ next in the ring. Apparently it was meant to be a creative name with a personality — and short for mobile, obviously.
By far the worst of the four names was ‘Tripod’. Although the reasoning behind it was sound, being that they wanted to get across the message that the phone was a combination of the iPod + Phone + Internet. It was hard not to be very aware of this at the time though, as it was heavily marketed as such during the first generation of the iPhone. I’m sure the tripod title would have caused more confusion than clarification in the long run.
Thankfully all those names were vetoed and Apple eventually settled on the iPhone, leaning on the ‘i’ rather than ‘Pod’ part of its iconic gadget’s moniker.
What name do you think Apple should have gone with? Or is the iPhone the perfect name? Let me know in the comments or head on over to our Facebook page.
