There’s more to the name than meets the “i.”
If you’ve ever wondered what the “i” in Apple products like “iPhone” or “iPad” stands for, you aren’t alone. Throughout the years, customers have attempted to guess what the letter could possibly stand for — and little did they know, there was already an answer.
During a 1998 speech announcing the iMac, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, revealed that the “i” stood for “internet,” according to NPR and The Economic Times.
At the time — amid the “dotcom bubble” — the internet was booming in popularity as more people logged on to the world wide web.
But Apple’s humble “i” also stood for so much more, according to tech experts.
“Steve Jobs said the ‘I’ stands for ‘internet, individual, instruct, inform, [and] inspire,’” Comparitech privacy advocate Paul Bischoff told Reader’s Digest.
“He also alluded to it referencing ‘I’ as a personal pronoun, and ‘instruction’ for education purposes.”
But Bischoff added that the “i” technically “didn’t have an official meaning,” leaving it up to interpretation.
This year, Apple released its latest smartphone generation, the iPhone 16, and with it, iOS 18. The newest update for the operating system is equipped with AI-powered features, the “i” in this case standing for “intelligence.”
The integration of Apple Intelligence, however, has been met with some pushback from consumers who are refusing to update to the latest iOS version, a decision that could leave their data vulnerable to malicious actors.
A bug in the old iOS allowed cybercriminals to gain access to users’ sensitive data. Updating, however, applied a patch that stopped hackers from exploiting the bug.
The tech company is also reportedly working on a foldable iPad that will supposedly be released to the public as soon as 2028, as well as a foldable iPhone that is not expected to hit markets before 2026, according to reports.
