Friday, January 14, 2005
What's in a name? The subliminal message embedded in Apple's new productivity suite
The more I think about it, the name "iWork" is a rather brilliant idea. When PC users hear "Word" or "Works" they automatically sbconsciously think of a word processor, and when Mac users hear "AppleWorks" they think the same thing. The name iWork sounds similar enough to all of the above that anyone of either platform should be able to peg it for being a word processor just by hearing its name. And the fact that it begins with a lower-case "i" tells you that it's been designed in the vein of iLife, the iMac, the iPod, and so on. So I think the name "iWork" is the perfect way for Apple to get its intended message across about the product: it's a word processor worthy of the letter "i". And yeah, I'm aware that "iWork" is actuallly the name of the entire suite, not just the word processor. I have to admit that I don't quite yet get why the word processing app itself is called "Pages," as all I can think of when I hear that name is either PageMaker or PageMill. Hmm, both of those apps were discontinued awhile ago. Maybe I've been at this too long.
So why not "iWorks"? Well, for one thing, it would sound just a little bit too much like MS Works or AppleWorks. You don't want to give people impression that it's "just another word processor." Throw them off just a tad by making the "s" disappear from the end, and you get their imagination going just a bit. And besides, you just have to take advantage of the embedded subliminal message in the product's name: "I work." You've just got to love software whose name contains a complete sentence that announces the fact that it functions properly.
The more I think about it, the name "iWork" is a rather brilliant idea. When PC users hear "Word" or "Works" they automatically sbconsciously think of a word processor, and when Mac users hear "AppleWorks" they think the same thing. The name iWork sounds similar enough to all of the above that anyone of either platform should be able to peg it for being a word processor just by hearing its name. And the fact that it begins with a lower-case "i" tells you that it's been designed in the vein of iLife, the iMac, the iPod, and so on. So I think the name "iWork" is the perfect way for Apple to get its intended message across about the product: it's a word processor worthy of the letter "i". And yeah, I'm aware that "iWork" is actuallly the name of the entire suite, not just the word processor. I have to admit that I don't quite yet get why the word processing app itself is called "Pages," as all I can think of when I hear that name is either PageMaker or PageMill. Hmm, both of those apps were discontinued awhile ago. Maybe I've been at this too long.
So why not "iWorks"? Well, for one thing, it would sound just a little bit too much like MS Works or AppleWorks. You don't want to give people impression that it's "just another word processor." Throw them off just a tad by making the "s" disappear from the end, and you get their imagination going just a bit. And besides, you just have to take advantage of the embedded subliminal message in the product's name: "I work." You've just got to love software whose name contains a complete sentence that announces the fact that it functions properly.
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