January 11th, 2007
If not iPhone, how about Apple iFon?
I offered a few suggestions and a poll for renaming the iPhone in the likelihood that Apple loses its lawsuit with Cisco over rights to use the name. Apple calling the lawsuit "silly" would indicate that Steve Jobs isn't interested in coming back to the negotiating table with Cisco.
The winner in the poll was Apple Phone followed by iPod Phone, but not by a wide margin. Many readers offered their own suggestions, which may already trademarked by others. The most logical was a play on iPhone, iFone, but that is currently used by a wireless telecom company, a software PBX firm and a game company among others. My suggestion would be to stick with three primary letters (Mac, Pod) and go with Apple iFon. It doesn't immediately create a strong association with the concept of a phone, but Apple is very good at marketing its brands. And if the "iPhone" is so revolutionary, and not just a phone, then a new moniker, like Pod, may be doable. What do you think?
Here is a sample of the names from Talkbackers:
- iFone
- iPfone
- iMobile
- iRoyalties
- iCom or iComm
- iPricey
- MacPhone
- XPod
- telePod
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
