What does the i in iPhone or iPad mean or stand for?

The Apple i in iPhone, iPad, iPad or iMac stands for internet or it could mean independent (see iUpdate at the bottom of this page for more information).

Hold on a moment before you leave.

This is an article site, not a ten word answer site.

There's a lot more good stuff below. You just need to read and understand the following...

• I agree to read and digest all information on this page
• I will be delighted with the information, or lack of it, provided.
• I will not sue

Please note that I spent a good deal of time trying to find the answer to this question. Eventually I realised there wasn't a proper page on it.

That's why I wrote one.

However, even with the amount of effort I put in I still couldn't stretch the answer out to a full page.

So I have gone for a bit of moaning in the middle, and then a conclusion at the end.

Please accept my apologies in an internet manner if during this article you are subjected to a bombardment of non too subtle and persistent advertising.

Some of this is not under my control – although obviously the cool and expensive stuff is.

A man’s got to earn a living somehow.

As an article writer of some renown, mostly my own, I have risen to the challenge of providing informative content on many occasions.

I would be disappointed in a potentially class action legal sense if the brevity of my initial response were to cause an immediate back arrow.

It’s all logged you know. Within less than three hours of opening up my Chrome laptop and swearing constantly - I can figure out which side of the world you live on and whether you actually ever buy things or just waste people’s time.

Anyway, that’s the user friendly welcome over and done with – please try to relax and enjoy the rest of this article.

On the plus side of all these caveats, inducements and veiled threats - there may be some jokes within this article.

Note: The use of the word “may” above clearly indicates that there are not.

A question that has puzzled more than one searcher over the years, although not many more to be honest.

During my previously mentioned research I discovered other answers and also made some up to puff out the list a bit.

• i stands for internet – OK we’ve done that. As an answer I am fairly happy with it. It makes some sense.
• i stands for me. A personal ownership conferred by the name, a belonging to what is otherwise just a phone or pad or pod.
• i stands for information. I made this up but it seems a possibility – the information age and so on.
• i stands for independent. This might be the real answer - see i Update below.
• doesn't mean anything. This also might be the real answer.

If you want to add to this list please use the comment section below. I wont take any notice of course, like I have a life - duh, but it’s all part of that interactive (oh, there’s another i word) deal with social networking and friendship rubbish. So very Apple – iFriend, uFriend, and so on.

Other i words which I rejected were ignorance, irritation and inadequate. Pity the poor advertising executive who might have suggested these – even as an iJoke.

If they hadn’t used the i then we would have been faced with much more normal and less desirable products.

A phone for example, or a pod or pad. Not really floating my boat in a credit damaging way to be honest. For the cost of most Apple products I can buy at least two of a cheaper alternative. But they don’t have i in front of them.

So hats off to Apple and a credit card salute to the marketing genius who came up with this idea.

Hopefully soon the amount of Apple based debt will reach sufficient size for other marketing possibilities for bad debt management such as iDespair, iAmBroke, iSpentTooMuch. I am tempted to register these in advance but given the success of most of my get rich quick ideas – probably not worth bothering with.

I’ll admit I am not an Apple fan.

Overpriced technology, no matter how cool, does not do a lot for me.

To be fair to Apple, I’m not a fan of any product.

If it does what it should within reasonable price parameters then that’s fine.

Why would I be a fan of it?

It makes no sense to me. “Oh yes, darling, I’m a real fan of this cake tin manufacturer and by the way I simply love the new Anusol packaging”.

I think the i naming gimmick is getting a bit tired.

In the business of cool, nothing lasts for ever. So it’s essential to keep on with the cutting edge branding game otherwise the selfish consumers could relax and start spending money on luxuries like food and heating bills.

So my idea for Apple which I offer freely is to move on from the i prefix. What could be better than including the name of the company to maintain the merging of product, identity and all round coolness?

Next year may see the aPhone released. Not just a phone but aPhone.

Could be aWinner.

In response to a user query in the comments section I grudgingly did a little more research.

This involved wading through the Wiki entries for i things - Pads, Pods, etc. Reading the trademark history for the iPod (yes I know, tedious in the extreme) it would appear that the i may stand for Independent. As in independent pod, derived from a reference in Space Odyssey.

However the trademark was already registered by a different company and the meaning there was Internet Kiosks.

My guess, no assumption, (sounds better) is Apple just carried on with the i branding for subsequent products.

So it probably doesn't mean anything anymore.

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