Scott Buscemi of 9to5mac published an interesting piece of news yesterday. It seems Apple considered four different names for the iPhone apart from well, the obviously chosen “iPhone “. And surprisingly most of the other choices seem funny now, which are “Telepod”, “iPad”, “Mobi” and “Tripod”. At an event at the University of Arizona’s Department of Marketing (Eller School of Management), former Apple advertising lead Ken Segall shared this additional details into the naming behind Apple’s massively popular smartphone.
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Talking at the conference Ken Segall further explained about why Apple considered the other four choices relevant.
Telepod: Because it sounded like a futuristic “Telephone” combined with the already famous “iPod”
iPad: As we all know the iPad was under development much before iPhone and Apple felt that iPhone felt much similar to iPad initially
Mobi: A shorter name for the word “Mobile”
Tripod: Apple stressed at the iPhone launch event that iPhone is a combination of three devices: a large screen iPod, a phone and an internet communications device. Hence the name “Tripod”
Finally Apple did decide to go ahead with the name iPhone which was already registered to Cisco to brand their IP telephone but Apple could successfully strike a deal with Cisco. Ultimately Apple had to fight with Proview to settle down with the iPad name as well in China that was a deal worth $60 million for Proview.