When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after his exile, the company had way too many products and no fixed policy of naming them. Jobs wanted to bring sense into their nomenclature; so he set out to rename all the products.
The desktop was christened iMac, the laptop was MacBook and the music player iPod. His method of naming all these devices bore his quintessential trademark — simplicity.
Things were easy back then because there were only a handful of products. But then Apple started diversifying. It started making phones and tablets and (now) even watches!
Apple today has so many products that there are subcategories within each product category.
Take the iPad for example. There’s the recently launched iPad (ya, just ‘iPad’). And then, there’s the iPad Air, iPad mini, and the iPad Pro. Two of these models have numbered versions – iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 4. On the other hand, iPad Pro has two versions, both of which are called iPad Pro! They are distinguished by the screen size.
Let’s take another product line to further explain the point – Apple Watch. The name tags get even more confusing with this one. There’s Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2. Common sense dictates that Series 1 is the original model that Apple launched and Series 2 is the updated version introduced last year, right?
Wrong.
Both, Series 1 and Series 2 were launched last year. The original model was just called Apple Watch. Series 1 is effectively the original model with processor update. Go figure!
Wait, we aren’t done with the Apple Watch yet. Series 1 and Series 2 are just the ‘series’. We have multiple models within them. There’s Edition (yes, just edition), Sports, Stainless Steel, and the special Nike Edition, all of which come in 2 options – 38mm and 42mm. My head is spinning!
Apple is seriously losing the naming game here. Unless you’re a serious Apple follower, there’s no way you’ll be able to keep track of their messed up naming schemes.
To be entirely fair to Apple, it is really difficult to name such a wide variety of products. However, that’s no reason to stop trying. Apple has always prided itself in its minimalistic solutions and simplistic designs. It’s imperative that they come up with a naming system that is in keeping with their ideology.
And they need to do it NOW!
The lineup is already very complicated, and the future doesn’t look too bright either. What will they call the next iPhone SE? iPhone SE 2, perhaps? Or just “The New iPhone SE”!
Don’t think for a minute that won’t happen. Have you forgotten how Apple launched a new iPad and called it “The New iPad”? And the one after that was called “iPad with Retina Display”. That’s right. Apple named their products with a freaking phrase! How lazy was that!?
What if the next iPad is a smaller Pro with 4K display that’s super light? Will it be called The New iPad mini 5 Pro 4K Air? We hope not, because they’re dangerously close to becoming like Samsung that launched a phone called Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Ouch! That’s a mouthful.
We will regret the day something like that happens. Step up your game, Apple, and make some sense of your names!!
