News

There's Finally An Explanation For What The 'i' In iPhone Stands For

by Anna Menta
Getty Images

Like a good little citizen of capitalism, I never questioned the products my Apple overlords bestowed on me.

It never occurred to me the ever-present "i" prefix — iPhone, iMac, iTunes, iPad, iPod — meant anything at all. It's just always there!

But recently, everyone's been talking about a video of this one Apple event in 1998 where Steve Jobs himself told us all what the "i" meant.

During a presentation introducing the iMac, Jobs explained the "i" stands for "Internet" first and foremost, but it also represents four more "i" words: individual, instruct, inform and inspire.

Who knew?! There's a bit of an acrostic-poem-I-wrote-in-fifth-grade vibe to that meaning, but it makes sense in reference to the iMac.

When the iPhone was announced nearly a decade later in 2007, the "i" was brought back to again emphasize "Internet," as in a phone with Internet access.

More recently, Apple threw the "i" onto many of the devices it churned out, essentially reducing the meaning of the letter to just the Apple signature.

So next time you use your iPhone, you can think of it as a Steve Jobs pep talk from the past: individual, instruct, inform and inspire!

Citations: Here's what the 'i' in iPhone means (Mashable)