2006 was a simpler time. We didn’t know we wanted apps, touchscreen smartphones or even a phone that looked cool. However, over in Cupertino, California, a company by the name of Apple was trying to nail down its first ever mobile phone, the iPhone.
Whilst the name ‘iPhone’ is now a household thing all over the world, the brand name and top-selling smartphone that we know today might not have been given such a catchy name. Apple went through many different names before settling on iPhone.
Ken Segall, Apple’s old head of advertising, has revealed some of the names that were considered before iPhone. Speaking to students at the University of Arizona recently, Segall told of how the iPhone was almost called the Apple ‘TelePod’ – really, Apple?
The mashup of telephone and iPod of course makes sense when you think about what the first iPhone was, but it certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue.
‘TriPod’ was also considered, although we’re not really sure why – a tripod is most definitely already a thing, and the name doesn’t make us think of a mobile phone, that’s for sure. ‘Mobi’ was another effort that was scrapped.
Ironically Apple also considered calling their first phone the ‘iPad’, but we all now know why that name was set aside for something else.
It’s hard to imagine anything else other than ‘iPhone’ as the name for Apple’s now famous mobile, but if you could change the name to one of Apple’s previous suggestions, which would it be?