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Nowadays, saying ‘apple’ would bring associations with a tech company rather than a fruit, and things like iPod, iPhone and iPad are household names, but did you know that there is a hidden meaning behind the ‘i’, a meaning that was embedded in it when Apple launched its first iProduct? It all starts around 1997 when Steve Jobs made his return to Apple from NeXT Computers with a grand vision and with a company 6 months short of going bankrupt. Groups of Apple employees have formed, each one blaming others for the demise of the company, and Cupertino was practically all in shambles. Jobs spent the first few months cutting down on products and employees, and trying to regain focus. What remained were two product lines - the PowerPC and the Mac family, and it was time take a bet and put all chips on the table on one of these. It was the Mac family, with a plan for the first computer to ship with a new for the time Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, and the first to shockingly skip the 3.5-inch floppy drive. This visionary approach to features will later become an Apple trademark. One more thing - Jobs had a radically different vision for its looks and design - it was not to be disassembled and upgradable (that was a stark difference from the vision of core Apple engineers like Wozniak), it was translucent and came in a fascinating array of vivid colors. It was like nothing else in the market, and right in its center was a CD-Rom drive. "We're betting the company on this computer," said Steve. "It needs a great name." As always, Jobs took the creative lead, thinking up names and he eventually came up with the name MacMan. Luckily, he was not the only one involved in the process. Ken Segall came to Apple directly from NeXT, with Steve Jobs, and he and his team were shocked when hearing the name. It must have taken a lot of convincing, but finally Steve agreed with his Apple co-workers to settle on a different name: iMac. "It's a full-powered Mac, so it can do a lot of things. But first and foremost, it will get you onto the Internet in 10 minutes, even if you've never used a computer before." And that’s where the ‘i’ in all succeeding Apple products comes from: ‘i’ for the Internet, the most important new feature of the iMac. The presentation board, however, liked the name for more than just that. The name was spot on - it was simple, it was obvious, it fit in the ‘Think Different’ Apple ideas. To them, it also stood for other things, things of different value like individual and imagination. These are the core Apple values built in the names of the current iPod, iPhone and iPad. We might also see an iWatch, and many other iDevices, but the values behind those products seem to remain a priority for Apple, don’t you think? Source

This sounds like a campfire folk tale, but here goes. A new report claims Apple—Steve Jobs, specifically—approached Sony about putting OS X on VAIO computers. The former Apple CEO allegedly admired Sony’s VAIO line so much that he was willing to strike a deal, despite Apple shutting down its Mac “clone” business many years earlier. Jobs even demoed Apple’s desktop OS running on a VAIO to demonstrate how everything would look. And it was super close to happening, too, according to the report. The information comes from ex-Sony president Kunitake Ando, via Japanese freelance writer Nobuyuki Hayashi. In 2001, Jobs and some Apple executives were playing a round of golf with some execs at Sony, and at the end of the 18th hole, that’s when Jobs pitched the idea, “holding [a] VAIO running Mac OS.” Jobs allegedly told Ando he was “willing to make an exception” and put Apple’s OS on its VAIO line—and it could have worked if not for the unfortunate timing. Jobs’s proposition came just as VAIO sales were taking off in the international market, meaning Sony didn’t have the resources to work on an OS X version of the computer. Imagine how Sony’s VAIO brand would have been shaped had it gone down the Apple route. Ando’s account actually lines up with OS X’s so-called “double life” as it was transitioning over from PowerPC to Intel; Jobs made a formal announcement of the transition in 2005. Jobs apparently greatly admired Sony, and was often seen visiting the Japanese company’s campus. Hayashi also mentions how interested Jobs was in Sony’s camera division—he liked to ask executives lots of questions—and how Jobs often shared his opinion on new Sony products, including the PSP. According to Ando, the inclusion of GPS in Sony camera products originated from Jobs. Meanwhile, Ando believes Jobs got the idea for Apple retail stores from him after having a discussion about Sony’s retail business. Hayashi’s report is fascinating, and sheds more light onto the relationship between Apple and Sony, and the mutual respect between the two companies. Had Sony been able to hit the market with an OS X VAIO, who knows how its PC brand would be shaped today. For that matter, where would Apple’s famous Mac lineup, which just turned 30, stand? Source