Millions of people around the world use Apple devices and most of them would not give up their iPhone for anything.
That being said, the vast majority of them also don’t realize why Apple uses the lowercase “i” in their product’s names, something that dates back to the iMac in 1998.
Some people may guess that the “i” makes the device more personal, but in reality, it loosely stands for “internet.” According to iPhone J.D., in 1998, Steve Jobs talked about the features of the iMac at an Apple event, including the values that Apple held dear.
He said: “iMac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the internet with the simplicity of Macintosh. We are targeting this for the number one use that consumers tell us they want a computer for, which is to get on the internet simply and fast.”
When you really stop to think about it, the iMac was revolutionary as far as Apple devices were concerned. It made using the Internet simple and it was also one of the first computers to use a mouse and a graphical user interface. This is something that has since become standard on all computers.
As it turned out, Steve Jobs wasn’t just talking about the internet when he was referring to the “i,” he also talked about how Apple was a personal computer company.
In his words, the iMac was “born to network” but was also a beautiful standalone product. It was built for education and he hoped that the product would continue to evolve as they created new products.
As Jobs was speaking, they showed slides behind him listing five words. Those five words, each of which started with the letter “I” included “internet, individual, instruct, inform, and inspire.”
Even though they started out representing the iMac, they have come to represent everything that Apple brings to the table.