Posts Tagged ‘michael jackson’
photo by blueone
Let’s do a quick and interesting experiment.
Those of you who doesn’t know what an iPod is, hands up.
Now, go jump off a cliff/tree/building/motorway/bridge near you.
Told you that was quick, didn’t I?
Now, to those remaining, have you ever wondered where Apple got the name iPod from? It’s a name, or word, so synonymous with this generation and like many things, we take for granted where the name came from. And being a marketing / branding expert, I could not possibly live with myself if I do not try and figure out the origins of the brand iPod.
First of all, let’s break the name up so we can properly analyse it.
The “I” was a fad. Nowadays, apart from Apple, any company that comes up with a product (or *gasp* a service) that starts with an “I” will either a. get laughed at or b. get shot, then laughed at. The “I” was like the “e”. First came eBusiness and then you had e-commerce and e-tail. Then there was eMassage Oils and eStupidFurnitureFromScandinavia and eImNotTooCoolSoIllJustAddAn”e”ToMyBrand.
Then you have the Pod – what were they thinking? A Kinder egg looks like a Pod, a mouse (the thing you click with) looks like Pod, even a scrotum looks like a Pod – a rather floppy one – but nonetheless, a Pod! That square thing when it was launched looked more like a biscuit, or a piece of toast, or (insert rectangular, non-food item here). If you disagree, think about this. What do you think of when you hear the word pod? Something round, or cyclindrical or at least rounded. Go look it up if you don’t believe me. Dictionaries say “round,or cylindrical encasing.”
My point is this: although it was not a Pod per se, but hey, look at how smart they were. This is purely speculation but this is my theory: it was a time of portable things, CDs computers, stuff! And you wanted stuff on demand, Word, PowerPoint, music, MTV. They could have easily called it Music on Demand, which then it would iMod, and that would have restricted them to only music. And today, they would surely have problems selling iMod and iVod (no points for getting that one right) separately. But they didn’t. And the reason is this: they actually a gypsy chained up in their secret underground lab who told them that in future, iPods could play video! With that in mind, and both music and video being “playback”, the thing became known as intelligent Playback On Demand! That is how name the iPod came about.
This has always been my theory for years, until some rumours of the real origin surfaced, and I still believe that my theory is right and their Space Odyssey story is a cover up. It’s so that the world will never know about their future-seeing gypsy woman. Just like area 51 and MJ.
Crawling the WWW, I’ve come across some other opinions, some interesting and some downright stupid.:
“Internet Palm Operated Device”
“i mean its so self explanatory…the thing looks like a damn pod and they just added an ‘i’ to it to make it sound computery. ” (Like, ohmygod, I’m so like totally, literally, blonde. And I know computery words too!)
“pod=leg i=i and= my leg” (My personal favourite. Makes absolutely no sense, just like yours truly)
“Personal Organizer Device”
“Product Of Da’future”
“Painfully Overpriced Device”
“Predator of Dell”
“Until I get my iPod fixed *again*, I’m dubbing it “Piece of Dung.”
“I p****d on Diamond” (Makers of the Rio Mp3 players)
” ephod-iazô , Ion. epod- , means furnish with supplies for a journey”
I had been playing with the idea of sticking my calendars onto the blog. Thus far I haven’t – and I’m beginning to think that I won’t. There are several reasons why; but chiefly, it’s because I don’t want my exact whereabouts to be broadcasted all over the world. Arguably, all it takes is some idiot in the government to lose a couple of CD’s with all our details and then we’d all be screwed. That would not be indifferent to putting a TomTom on my back and uploading the broadcast to the whole world. Then there’s the psychos! I really don’t want to die getting stabbed just because some demented freakazoid ran out of Bratz dolls to take heads off of. Then there’s the question of creditors. I guess by now on the WWW I’m as transparent as Michael Jackson and they could, easily methinks, come and get me as I’m pulling out of a the driveway to get milk from the supermarket wearing my pajamas and no underwear – or a jock strap/gimp suit/cowboy/Pink Panther/feather boa (Fridays, Saturdays and eve of public holidays, 10pm onwards only). So in other words there now won’t be a calendar advertising my exact location to demented killers/debt chasers/crazy people/plastic celebrities/vengeful tomatoes from outer space/Tom Cruise. Then again, why is there a need? People I see often know where I am and those who I haven’t seen in 10 years really don’t care where I am next Friday after dinner.
The World Of M 