Now the iPhone really is called “iPhone”. Not iPod Phone or something like that. Despite what was somehow predicted before and also sounded reasonably logical: iPhone was a overused name, to the point that it had become a cliché, the symbol for the infamous rumor sites, the descendent of the notorious “real Video iPod”.

Why then is Apple actually using this dull name? Well, everybody knows what an iPhone is, that’s for sure. The long-rumored mobile-phone thingy from the “iPod company”. Actually calling it iPod Phone is not really necessary, especially if the iPod part of the phone is just one third of the whole thing. This is not a phone-enabled iPod but rather a computer that manages – tries to manage – to be the trinity of being an iPod, a phone and a mobile internet device. Maybe Apple thinks calling it “just” iPod Phone would mislead customers. And then there’s the thing with the legitimation of the price. iPod with some phone stuff in it like “iPod phone” would suggest = 500$? No way. iPod+Phone+Internet = 500$? Hell, yes. Thus the need for the more function neutral “iPhone”. And the “iP” ensures that everybody knows that this thing is indeed coming from the “iPod company”.

What would have been the alternatives to both iPhone and iPod Phone? Looking at how they decided to name the former iTV, now Apple tv, shows us one. Because actually they are calling it tv. The Apple logo and the following lower case “tv” shows that there was some paradigm shift when it come to naming devices at Apple. And this paradigm shift even made its way to the iPhone: look at the iPhone page. The iPhone is not called iPhone, no! It’s called iPhone. See it? There is no Apple logo in front of the iPod, none in front of iMac or anything else at the Apple website. Just in front of Apple tv and the iPhone. Why then wouldn’t it have been more logical, if Apple thinks putting Apple in front of their products (or just their logo) is a good thing, to call the iPhone just phone? Maybe that was even discussed. That’s not a too bad name. It raises awareness that Apple is making the device. Not just the “iPod company”. Problem is, however, that any reference to the iPod is stripped in this name. I guess this might ultimately be the reason why the iPhone is the iPhone and not the Apple phone.

At least, if iPhone doesn’t work out they have a great alternative: the phone.