Wednesday, March 24, 2010

y i not a




According to Wired Magazine for the past few months Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been answering customer emails, himself. Of course, he is not answering all customer emails, just some, well maybe several, or a few anyway. Wired says he has answered at least one.
i have to give Steve Jobs credit...This is a great PR move, and the billionaire is using his iPad to answer the mail.

What an opportunity i thought...Here is a chance to communicate directly with the man who created a technological revolution.

Today i am drafting my own email to Jobs in hope that i too might get a response...

Here is the first draft...

Hi Steve,
i have a question i need to ask...Steve, where did u get this lower case "i" thing u r using before the name of your products. Granted, its cool, but what does it mean.

Obviously, the "i" has some significance for u... iPod, iPhone, iTunes and now iPad. All named with an "i".

And your small "i" success has spawned many imitators... iHome, iTheather, iGoogle, iMobile and it goes on.

Steve, bear with me, but I never understood y u didn't use a lower case "a" instead "i"?... then people would listen to their music on "aPod" (get it "a" Pod). And people would talk on "aPhone"...
Come on Steve, admit it, it makes more sense, doesn't it? "a" is an article and belongs before a noun, "i" is a pronoun.
i know u are a busy man, but can u explain y u used "i" and not "a".
Sincerely,
Tony

2 comments:

Jeff Welch said...

I think it all started in 1998 with the iMac- the "i" standing for "internet." The iMac was pretty much the first product in about a decade Apple sold that garnered mainstream success. I would suspect that the use of "i" in "iPod" was meant to capitalize (no pun intended) on the earlier iMac's success.

BobK1 said...

Hi Tony, here's "y" the "i".

This article on the web gives a good overview of the "i" naming rationale (it started ca 1998):

http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2009/01/the-i-in-iphone.html

Regards,
Bob