Was iCloud the Final ‘iName’?

Last week on Twitter, in a thread speculating on what Apple might name its widely-rumored upcoming VR headset, I mentioned that I don’t expect it to be named with an “i” prefix. I tweeted that iPad, introduced in 2010, was the last such name. A few followers chimed in that iCloud, introduced at WWDC 2011, came later.

iCloud was the last new Apple product or service introduced by Steve Jobs. To my knowledge, no one at, or formerly at, Apple has ever come out and said it, but it seems pretty clear that those iNames were a Steve Jobs thing. I would expect future Apple products and services to be named like Apple Watch — “Apple” followed by a simple descriptive word.

Update: iMessage was announced (by Scott Forstall, with a humorous assist from Joz) during the same WWDC 2011 keynote where Jobs announced iCloud. Let’s call it a tie then: iCloud and iMessage are the last new iNames.

★ Friday, 2 September 2022