Does the "i" in iMac, iTouch, iChat, iTunes, iPhone, etc. stand for anything?

Initially, the “i” was used in the iMac name, denoting “internet-ready out of the box” and “I” – a personal computer one could express themselves with. It went all crazy from there.

It originally stood for internet back when computers didn’t generally come with Ethernet built in for high speed internet. The just had modems. I believe the iMac was the first Mac to be ready for high-speed internet out of the box. The iPod came soon after and the “i” prefix just blew up.

and p.s. the iTouch isn’t an actual apple product, it’s just a nickname for the iPod Touch.

Back when the ‘i’ debuted in the original iMac the selling point was supposed to be how easy it was to get online, so the i stood for internet. Over time however its gone far beyond that, and now just basically means its part of Apples ‘digital life’ thing.

I like to think it came about because ‘i’ means ‘me’. As in “MyMac” or “MyPhone”. But that’s just my idea.

@jballou
I just checked my 7200/75 that is in the closet. It has Ethernet. And that was way before the iMac.

And in the original iMac commercials they showed it plugging into a normal phone jack. ISDN was the only thing other than Dial-up that we had here at the time. And I live in a somewhat large and tech-savvy town.

there is no such thing as an iTouch, stop calling it that

I realize that, it was an honest mistake at trying to come up with a list of Apple products. I obviously left out iPod entirely. I don’t admit to being perfect and knowing everything, which is why I asked the question in the first place. jballou already pointed that out in a much more courteous manner. No need to be rude about it.

Thanks to the rest of you for your answers. I had one of the original iMacs and had an idea that might be the reasoning. I remember how simple it was setting it up. I also remember being able to do an entire load of laundry while it loaded pages on Dial-up.

I had a theory about Ipod when it first came out I thought it was I as in me, mine, personal and pod as in pod of whales because whales are huge, and the amount of music held by an iPod was huge

@sarbee

HAHA. That’s a funny theory. The whole whale part.

When Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple and then got his job back, he decided to put an ‘i’ in front of every product he thought of. You can thank El Jobso for inventing the iPod, iMac, and iPhone. Oh yea, you can also thank him for any program in OSX that begins with an ‘i’.

yeah, yeah, yeah…I vote for “i“nnovative!

@seesul. yeah sorry for coming across as rude. i just get annoyed when people do it so i kinda took it out on that post. if its an honest mistake its cool

@johnpowell oops, my bad!

only the ipod touch and iphone have internet; what about the other ipods?

I always thought it was “Intelligent”, like BMW’s ‘i“s

because secretly, they are all made in iNDIA ~

I Steve Jobs want your money

iMac = InternetMac… done. The name caught on and apple started putting it in front of everything. I love apple but enough with the I’s already.