A long time ago, in an operating system still lurking about today, Microsoft started a convention of naming things “My”. “My Computer”, “My Documents and Settings”, “My Music”, etc.
I can’t say for certain whether Microsoft got in first with “My*” or whether Apple got in first with “i*”; the iMac was released originally in 1998, but I can’t remember which operating system Microsoft pioneered the “My*” naming convention in.
Even if Microsoft did get there first, it doesn’t mean that they actually got it right.
Think about the difference between the two strategies: Microsoft name a bunch of locations and components within the operating system with a “My” prefix. Most little children go through a “My” phase – insisting they own everything. The first thought I had when I saw the “My Computer” designation was “My goodness, are we all 2 year olds again?” For years, this stuck with me as my primary criticism of the “My” designation in Microsoft operating systems.
It occurred to me today though (sometimes I can be a bit of a lump) that there’s a much better differentiation between the naming convention that Microsoft took, and the naming convention that Apple took. The linguistic differences between the two naming conventions are actually far more important.
“My” is a possessive adjective; it implies ownership – a passive declaration of state. Nothing more. “My Documents and Settings” just means “These are the documents and settings I own”. They don’t guarantee any level of excitement in the same way as “My toilet paper” doesn’t guarantee a level of excitement.
The “i” in the various “i*” products from Apple though use the first person singular version of the letter; i.e., “I am Preston” or “I am typing”. Used in front of all these different product names, “iMac”, “iPad”, “iPhone”, “iPod”, etc., it also effectively converts the second part of the name into a verb. A “doing word“, to use the lay-term.
If you think it’s crazy that the i* terminology has worked so well for Apple when at some level it looks a bit silly, consider this: the very product names imply activity – that you can use them to do something. Activity implies opportunity – opportunity for fun, opportunity for movement, opportunity for … well, you get the picture.
I’m not suggesting that the i* and My* approaches used by Apple and Microsoft respectively equate to comparable products; they don’t. But where they can be compared is the recognition that building a bond, a relationship between a person and a product is effectively fundamental marketing 101 for any non-essential item – or anything where you’re not aiming to be the cheapest.
In this regard, what I’m saying is: Apple understood this better than Microsoft. A strategy of product naming that makes every product name a verb is a profoundly simple way of telling everyone who looks at the product, “yes, you can use this to do something”.
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I think the story went something like this, the iMac was originally built to be an NC back when those were still being hyped…well it was a stupid idea so it ended up as a PC anyway (just add one hard disk) & the “i” was for “internet”, so expanded, the iMac would have been the “internet Mac”.
As for the “i” prefix, it looks like it just got stuck at Apple. The iMac was an instantly recognizable as an Apple product so they prefixed it to Tunes, Photo, Pod & whatnot so they would also instantly be recognizable as Apple products…the sort of thinking where it converts the second part of the word into a verb…I don’t know for sure if that ever happened or if the marketers ended up interpreting it as that in the end, but given there weren’t any “verb” ads (“iMac because…blah blah blah something something”), thankfully that is, it was probably never a consideration.
The original iMac was certainly built in a time when everyone was still talking about the NC, and yes, at that point, the “i” did stand for “internet” as much as anything.
Sometimes creativity and marketing isn’t about what you deliberately set out to do, but rather, what you achieve subconsciously. I realise we don’t run around saying “I’m going to Mac”, or “I’m going to Pod”, but the subtle aspect of the i* approach is that each product name becomes a verb “of sorts” – each product name implies doing something.