Ever wondered what the ‘i’ prefix in all Apple products stands for?

Suggestions vary from interactive and interesting all the way to idiotic etc. But the real explanation is not really complicated, too.

The trend originated back in the 1990’s when Apple was in economic crisis and desperately needed a new product strategy. First came the Think Different campaign. It served to show that Apple products are innovative, and the company thinks in a different, more creative way than other ones. And so the company’s problems were temporarily solved. But then there was the need of naming the first of the drastically innovative products – the Bondi-Blue iMac, as it was later called.

The person to ‘blame’ for the massive i-trend is Ken Segall. After presenting the see-through drop-shaped monitor, Jobs was in desperate need for a name that would suit it, and its follow-ups. The key importance of the new product was that it would be easily used for internet work – that was the design. And they wanted to incorporate the Macintosh brand in the name. So Segall proposed iMac – an internet-Mac. The ‘i’ as a prefix could also incorporate other adjectives such as individual, innovative, imaginative etc, depending on the product.  According to him Jobs didn’t like the idea, but eventually just went with it as all other suggestions were worse than this one. You can read the interview with Ken Segall here.

Who would’ve known that years later the world would be flooded with i-products and every person has heard of the Apple gadgets?