Methinks You're Wrong
News Commentary. Apple shouldn't go from "I" to "Me." The connotations just don't work. |
Rumors about "me" have cropped up over the last week regarding impending Apple announcements expected on June 9. Last week, there was .Mac renaming based in part on an icon found in a new beta of the iPhone 2.0 software. Now Macworld UK claims that Apple has been scoffing up .me domain extensions. The new domain designation, for Montenegro, opens up for registration later this week and goes live in mid-July. Obviously, .me would have broader marketing appeal to some companies.
The rumored .Mac renaming is disturbing in context of the Apple .me domain registrations. I can understand that Apple would want those .me extensions, just to protect brand equity around products such as iPod or iTunes. No problem, if the plans stop there. But what if Apple wants to go big-time "me" rebranding starting with .Mac? On Friday, John Gruber put forth "Mobile Me" as one .Mac name replacement. I say one big yuck to that.
The "I" branding was sheer brilliance; "Me" would reduce the marketing benefits. That little "i" in all those Apple product names isn't just shorthand for Internet (if it ever really was). There are lots of subtle connotations carried in the use of "I." Comes to mind: the book I, Claudius. The "I" as statement of self, of something important. The name may read iDVD but we hear I, DVD. I Movie. I Photo. The "I" denotes something special, something important, something you should take notice in. The best is when an Apple name makes that personal, as in "I Chat" for the product iChat.
Other Apple product names are evocative in a different way. GarageBand is classic. Most everyone knows what a garage band is and the hope said group has of breaking out, making the big time, if only the group practices hard enough and gets the sound just right. Apple's approach to operating systems is to spice up the boring numerical name, like Mac OS X 10.2, with something catchy. Jaguar. It's a fast cat or classic car. Mac OS X 10.5, as in Leopard, is a cat that prowls and stalks, maybe in this case Windows Vista.
The "I" has worked well for Apple. "Me" is much less desirable. "I" evokes nobility, intelligence. "I think, therefore, I am." In grammar, "I" is subject, while "Me" is object. "Me" is baser, more self-centered. "Poor, poor pitiful me." "What about me?" "Me, too!" Surely many parents would have negative association with a word so often used by kids in their nagging.
For longtime PCs users, there is the disaster called Windows Millennium Edition, better known as Windows Me. Now, there's a "Me" with which Apple should want absolutely no association. Even worse association: That silly, stupid family ET movie "Mac and Me." Seriously, Microsoft should do some counter-marketing around the term "Mac and me," if Apple so foolishly changes its nomenclature.
There are reasons why Apple computer commercials begin, "'Hello, I'm a Mac,' and 'I'm a PC.'" It's not "Me a Mac," "Me is a Mac" or "Mac is me." The use of "I" isn't just a grammatical consideration, it's connotation. Apple has no qualms breaking grammar when marketing suits its objectives. "Think Different" is grammatically incorrect. There should be an "ly" on the end of "different." If the connotation was right, Apple would have used something else—grammar be damned.
"Me" is all wrong, and it's worse in context. The domains are great examples: iphone.me, ipod.me or itunes.me. That's "Me" and "I" for each domain and no myself (you know, me, myself and I) in between them. There is something unnatural sounding about the "I" and "Me" together in iphone.me. Yuck.
Comments (2)
If I remember my history correctly, the very first iApp was called iView Media - by Script Software. I remember reading (in something on the Script Software www site, I think) that the idea of the name was that the app's name self-described what the app does.
They started out as a Mac-only shop, bringing out a few other iTems such as iClock and iKey, in addition to their iNdispensable CopyPaste. iView Media was bought by a British shop, beefed up, and eventually snapped up by Micro$oft.
You probably won't be surprised to hear that Micro$oft will be changing the name to Microsoft Expression Media. They wouldn't wanna be noticed peddling any iStuff, after all.
Posted by Roger Diggle | June 3, 2008 7:01 PM
If I remember my history correctly, the very first iApp was called iView Media - by Script Software. I remember reading (in something on the Script Software www site, I think) that the idea of the name was that the app's name self-described what the app does.
They started out as a Mac-only shop, bringing out a few other iTems such as iClock and iKey, in addition to their iNdispensable CopyPaste. iView Media was bought by a British shop, beefed up, and eventually snapped up by Micro$oft.
You probably won't be surprised to hear that Micro$oft will be changing the name to Microsoft Expression Media. They wouldn't wanna be noticed peddling any iStuff, after all.
Posted by Roger Diggle | June 3, 2008 7:07 PM