Has Apple's 'i' Branding Run Its Course?

Back in 1998, Apple announced the iMac computer and the ‘i’ branding strategy was born. This practice of attaching a lowercase ‘i’ to the names of their products has proved to be a masterstroke. And of course the rest is history. They’ve gone on to introduce other ‘i’ products like the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iOS, iPad, iBooks and so on. There have also been some very funny uses like when Steve Jobs joked that he would adopt the title iCEO around the time when he was interim CEO.

Fourteen years later and the ‘i’ strategy is losing steam; we are beginning to see lacklustre names like iSight and iMessaging.  And then there’s that matter of what to call their fabled TV. A UK TV station already has the trademark to iTV. Frankly though, Apple has gotten very good mileage out of the strategy.

The time has come for Apple to come up with a new branding strategy. Nuff said.

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The iPad Mini: Why the Nexus 7 Has Never Looked Better

The iPad Mini has finally been unveiled and it leaves a lot to be desired. While I’m usually not swayed by unnecessary device spec details, I cannot but wonder why Apple went for a non-HD screen. The simple truth is that things look better on HD screens. Presently, the main contenders in the 7 inch tablet segment all have screens that are capable of displaying 720p HD. While the iPad Mini can display 720 pixels across (in width), it is not true 720p HD as the 720p standard is 1280 x 720. A standard which all the other contenders (Google’s Nexus 7, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet HD) meet. Apple’s retina display is irrelevant because the screen on the iPad Mini is not true 720p.