The “i” and the why
iPod quote: “I wake up in the morning and the latest Chris Lydon interview in on my iPod. I didn’t have to do anything, I didn’t have to understand how it got there. I call it a kind of reverse Tivo.”, said Adam Curry, American journalist
“Why does it have an ‘I’ before the ‘Pod’?”
This question was what triggered my research about the name of the iPod, I found the following definition, which couldn’t be clearer. If the iPod would be a dictionary word, probably the entry would be something like the following:
Etymology
i – internet, from Apple Computer’s “i” line of products, originally used in iMac. Alternately, oneself – as in “I”, or belonging to oneself.
Pod – literally a pod, a place to keep things, consistent with the device’s capability as a simple hard drive capable of storing anything (not just music). Also borrowing from pod’s connotation of smallness.
Proper noun
Singular
iPod
Plural
iPod ® (pl. iPods)
Definition
1. A brand of media player manufactured by Apple Computer that stores media on either a small hard drive or flash memory. Can also display video downloads.
An opinion by Athol Foden:
Athol Foden is a naming expert and president of Brighter Naming of Mountain View. He said: “The name ‘iPod’ makes much more sense for an internet kiosk, which is a pod for a human, than a music player”. “They discovered in their tool chest of registered names they had ‘iPod’. If you think about the product, it doesn’t really fit. But it doesn’t matter. It’s short and sweet.”
He also said the name is a stroke of genius: It’s simple, memorable and crucially, it doesn’t describe the device, so it can still be used as the technology evolves, even if the device’s function changes. He noted the “i” prefix has a double meaning: It can mean “internet” as in “iMac”, or it can denote the first person: “I”, as in me.
And the rest is history!