As for the litany of suffixes, it's so much easier (and actually makes more sense) to not take them so seriously or literally, because it's all just vibes based. "What's more Pro-er than Pro? maybe it's Max, maybe it's Ultra, whatever "sounds right". The way people get some kind of impression from a product or brand or a name isn't gonna be so neatly lined up ever. Like, this is one of those cases where advertising and branding shows up as kind of an actual art aimed to convey and evoke some kind of emotion, as opposed to just 'lining it all up'. Apple's branding is so focused on emotional appeal, so something like this just removes it. It doesn't matter what "Air" means, it's just a vibe. (and people do just want that, which they did find out when they tried to leave macbook air behind)
They have the iPad Pro.
It comes in two sizes.
If they update it, it’s still just the iPad Pro (not iPad Pro Max). The only time it becomes “iPad Pro 13” (2022)” is when comparing with older versions. But in general, it’s just the iPad Pro.
So that’s the mindset my post takes.
Agree or disagree, it’s just my take
"Apple phone" communicates that this is merely Apple's version of a thing, the phone, that many manufacturers produce.
"iPhone" is a noun, its own distinct category of thing, that you can only buy from Apple.
These kind of naming/marketing convention reviews are important to conduct when a change is needed. Nothing in this regards needs to be changed with the iPhone. The whole company doesn’t have to align around i this or that, or no i, until a change is needed. Why they didn’t call it iSilicon.
"X" is a stupid idea any time anybody does it, and I still can't remember what "XR" and "XS" mean. Luckily they dropped this.
"Mini", "Plus", "Max", and <none> are too many suffixes to express size.
"SE" is meaningless, but I'm not sure what attractive word there is for "low spec".
Overall it's a lot less confusing than almost all other consumer electronics lines, but that bar is comically low. They could almost make it perfect if they could somehow express the size literally, as the author suggests, though he conveniently does not give an example, because you will immediately see that the "iPhone Pro 6.3 inch" and "iPhone Pro 6.9 inch" are horrible branding. iPad gets away with it because it gets to use easy-to-remember whole numbers. (Edit: I forgot, the big one is 12.9", not 13")
At minimum they should just use one word to mean big, instead of having slightly different "Plus" and "Max" sizes.
The inconsistency in casing alone (iMac, MacBook, Mac mini, Mac Studio…) makes me twitch.
It was actually just a fun little task for myself, glad you all enjoyed it!
EDIT: on the topic of product recognition, how long did it take to forgot iTunes and simply start using its rebrand to ‘Apple music’?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/02/ken-segal...
Reads like a take-home interview assignment for a product manager candidate. And I’d give it a D - it suggests that current naming has zero value, which means this person does not understand brand equity.
iPhone 16 everyone knows this, and anticipates the next iPhone (presumably 17).
It’s about name recognition, cachet, aspirational qualities, etc. which are all way more important than consistency. Inconsistency is sometimes a tool for achieving differentiation.
First the naming convention for all of the iPhone models needs a cleanup. "iPhone 16 Pro Max" is weird. But not fully sure of an alternative.
and "iOS". It no longer makes sense to be generic and should just be "phoneOS" to match everything else. But at this point "iOS" is also largely solidified but not sure how much sense it makes to change and how many people outside of tech actually fully realize that "iOS" and "iPadOS" are now different.
Additionally, Pad is a terrible name and why is Pad 10” better than iPad Air? It doesn’t seem clear that it is an improvement.
Apple actually has one if the more straightforward naming conventions, the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, and AMD do not, or at least don’t until you learn their specific nomenclature.
You wouldn’t say “apple pad 10 inch (2023)” it’d just be “apple pad” and you’d have one of whichever size they offered. You might say “it’s the 2023 update, the 13-inch one” if required to specify for whatever reason in conversation - but when was the last time you worried about calling your iPad “iPad Air 4 13-inch” you just call it your “iPad”
Making these changes would cause chaos as everyone is already used to the current naming scheme, and AFAIK, it’s not really a problem.
Losing critically valuable names like “iOS” or “iPhone” would be detrimental for Apple.
iPhone SE iPhone iPhone Pro
All with different size. With Mini ( 5.7" )only available in SE and iPhone
I don't think they should have two slightly different "big" sizes, but regardless, the only difference between your suggestion and the current state of affairs is that the iPhone hasn't been available in Mini lately, and the SE is implicitly mini (they don't give it the suffix).
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Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh