Thoughts on the name “iPad”
I don’t like the name. I’d have called it “PADD”
PADD, like in “Personal Access Display Device” from Star Trek.
Because this is what this type of product represents for me; a client to a bigger more powerful host computer, which allows you to retrieve content, create content to some extent, and communicate.
It would surely be cool to walk around in public in my apartment, wearing a Star Trek uniform — which I don’t own, sadly — and pretend I’m Geordi LaForge. No, I wouldn’t be Picard, because he usually sits at his desk, a ginormous laptop in front of him, and he reads paper books.
As “PADD” is probably trademarked, my second choice would have been “iBook”. I think it is a great, established brand to build upon and Apple hasn’t produced anything under that moniker for a long time.
The reason why Apple didn’t use this name seems obvious:
The form factor, combined with the name “iBook” and the current hype around eReaders, could potentially limit what potential buyers — the non-geek kind — will associate the device with. For a general-purpose device, which the iPad is intended to be, this would probably have a detrimental effect on sales.
The fact that Apple named the eReading application on the iPad “iBooks” proves my point to some extent.
iPad, just like iPod a few years ago, is a neutral, not clearly defined term.
Despite the spiteful association with women’s hygiene products, which flared up on the Internet shortly after the name was official, there are a lot of things that contain the word “pad”: Note-pad, landing-pad, mouse-pad, (multitouch) track-pad and IBM Lenovo Think-Pad.
It’s basically something flat — the ThinkPad is too, when you shut the lid — which you can do something with.
If the iPad is going to be a successful product, the name might become a substitute, not only for the word “tablet” or “slate”, but for a whole range of general purpose devices, which are something between a full blown personal computer and a smartphone, just what Apple intends it to be (Screw netbooks!).
The iPod did this with digital music players and the iPhone pushed the term smartphone so far, David Pogue felt the need to coin the term “app phone” for this new category of phones.
I don’t know if I’m going to buy one, I’m still evaluating if it fits my work flow, or if it might even be able to streamline it to more efficiency — in plain English; if it is of actual use to me.
