IProduct: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Remember how we'd attach the letter E to everything? Good times. It stood for "electronic", so it could damn well apply to any new gadget at the time. Ancient history now...We've moved a vowel over.

The letter "i" can prefix ''anything'' and make it sound cool. People often have the misconception that only Apple does this with its line of electronic products, but nope - they weren't the first ones to flex their "i"s, and they're not the latest. Companies everywhere are cashing in on the iFad. So why "i"? Well, it likely began with the iMac, where it stood for "internet," because the iMac had a built-in modem and was designed mainly for web browsing. It also stood for "individual", as opposed to the Power Macintosh line of professional machines. It was later [[Trope Codifier|codified]] by the iPod, the most popular portable media player. The "individual" meaning has since spread to items and software where the "Internet" definition makes no sense, so more recently people seem to figure it's used like the pronoun. As in: "This phone is mine, bitch, back off!" or "Look at me! This is what I'm like!". Ah, the power behind lowercase letters.

 

* As mentioned before, Apple. Chances are, if you have marketed and sold a product with this type of idea, you got the idea from Apple.

** ''Some'' of their products include:

* Now there's a massage chair named the "iJoy". It doesn't seem to be related to Apple, though.

* The "iMail" example refers to certain types of email applications made by Ipswitch Inc.

* [[The BBC]]'s online radio/video player is named [http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ iPlayer].

** And [[The ABC]]'s [http://www.abc.net.au/iview/ iView].

* iGoogle is a customizable home page for Google users.

* Nintendo broke all boundaries and put its ''i'' at the '''end''' to create the ''Nintendo [[D Si]]''. In this case, the "i" refers to the system's cameras, which act as an "eye", while also reflecting the individuality of a handheld. Compare the Wii, whose name and two "i's" represent togetherness.

* Brookstone, a U.S. retail chain for specialty electronics and some other things, has had a lot of these, the worst IMO being the "iDesire" massage chair. They seem to have branched out to uWords recently.

** Would they be selling Osim products which include the iCare, iSnug, uPapa and uKimono?

* iBuzz Vibrator, although it's been discontinued. Though apparently there's a two-vibrator version available now, and a Vibro Pod Digital Music Simulator... hmmmm. Wonder how many other versions are out there?

** Would that have been any better if it was called the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|i.Beat Box]]?

* The video/photo-editing software company Ulead called one of its photo-cleanup programs iPhoto long before Apple started doing using this trend. In this case, the "i" did stand for the pronoun, as the message being launched was "a photo-cleaning so simple, even I can use it". When Apple started doing the iName stuff, they were dismayed to find that iPhoto was already taken, so they paid Ulead a significant amount of money to get Ulead to change the name of its product and sign over the rights to name future products.

* The Amiga browser IBrowse. Yes, it's a capital "I."

* Kraft held a naming competition for a variation of Vegemite in Australia, the winner was iSnack 2.0. The backlash was so bad they dropped the name within a few days, held a new competition where the winner was selected by popular vote and now its called Cheesybite.

* This troper's college replaced the old IR multiple-choice remotes used in a few classes with snazzy new ones that use RF, which means there's no more having to point the remote at a couple of receivers. They're suspiciously Apple-white and called iClickers, even though they don't have anything to do with internet connectivity. They're fine for what they are, but the name is just irksome.

* There's a New England-based party supply store named iParty.

* Intel's current line of Core processors have specific models designated by i followed by a number (i3, i5, i7, etc).

* There's a brand of iPod knock-offs called the iRiver. The only real advantage to having one is that it's (comparatively) cheap to buy. Other than that, it's slow, the sound quality is awful, and it's irritating as hell.

 

 

* Parodied in ''[[FoxTrot]]'' with the iFruit.

** ''[[FoxTrot]]'' also parodied it with the jPod pico.

** "Which color iTem are you going to get?"

** Lowercase "i"s seem to be a [[Running Gag]] on the site, in any context. Supposedly it began with the fact that the font used to write the name of Trodgor the "BURNINATOR" has an uppercase I that looks lowercase, and it took off from there.

** In a recent episode, Mom (serving as a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Steve Jobs) released the eyePhone, which gets [[Eye Scream|injected directly into your eye]], comes with [[Take That|no choice of carrier, and does not guarantee the quality of the battery or reception]] --

*** "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

* iHum is one of the many functions of a [[Discworld|Dis-Organizer]].

* I AM A ROBOT PIRATE. YO-HO-HO AND A BOTTLE OF RAM! I wear an iPATCH.

* When ''[[Top Gear]]'' made an electric car, Jeremy Clarkson insisted on putting an 'i' in the name. It was eventually christened the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust.

* ''Lock Legion: Everyone Dies'' has the iHugeStereo.

* ''[[My Immortal]]'' has Vampire being described as wearing iShadow at one point.

* Back in the late 1970s when "z" was the cool letter, Apple's Steve "The Woz" Wozniak distributed fake ads at the First West Coast Computer Faire for Altair's upcoming "Zaltair 8080" computer, featuring the new bazic programming language, verZatility I/O, and perZonality customization.

 

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