Before becoming names known around the world, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone or Air were simply ideas on a table. Some came about by chance, others were thought over again and again… but all of them ended up defining an important part of Apple’s history. Today, it is hard to imagine these devices being called anything else. Let’s look at the amusing stories behind Apple’s most important names.
Macintosh almost became Bicycle, and Lisa says it all
The story begins with Jef Raskin, one of the original people responsible for the Macintosh project. Apparently, Raskin chose the name because of his favorite apple variety, the McIntosh. In fact, quite an appropriate choice for a company called Apple, whose own name also has a very curious story behind it.
During the early years, Macintosh was simply the project’s codename. But the small team of engineers began using it every day and eventually made it their own. So much so that, in February 1981, when Raskin was away for an extended period, Steve Jobs and Rod Holt tried to establish a different name.
Holt appeared before the team with a proposal: from that moment on, the project would be called “Bicycle”. The new name came from an idea Jobs used to explain the potential of personal computers. He said that human beings fell quite far behind other animals in terms of movement efficiency, but that, once we got on a bicycle, we moved into first place. So, for Jobs, a computer could become a “bicycle for the mind”.
However, Bicycle barely made it out of the meetings. For weeks, Holt kept correcting those who continued using the old name until he eventually accepted the obvious: the whole team was still calling it Macintosh.
Determined to change the name, a year later Apple even hired a consultancy to come up with definitive names. Proposals such as Apple 40 and Apple Allegro appeared, but Macintosh once again prevailed.
Finally, after resolving the similarity with the McIntosh audio equipment brand, Jobs officially christened the computer by smashing a bottle of champagne against one of its prototypes. And that is how that codename ended up becoming one of the most important words in Apple’s history, something we recently looked back on while celebrating 40 years of the Macintosh.
The name of the “Lisa” computer also has its curious side. Apple explained the name through the acronym “Local Integrated Systems Architecture”, which sounds very convincing. But from the beginning there was an obvious association with Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Steve Jobs’s daughter. For years, that connection remained somewhat ambiguous and the acronym served as the official explanation. Over time, however, Jobs eventually acknowledged that the computer was indeed, and quite simply, named after his daughter.
iPod and iPhone: a spaceship and a little “i” that ended up defining an era
Years later, Apple once again needed a name. In 2001, it was preparing a music player designed to accompany the Mac and iTunes, and Steve Jobs already had a clear idea of how he wanted to present it: “1000 songs in your pocket”.
That idea left plenty of freedom when it came to the possible product name: it could convey a feeling, a purpose, a limit… The story goes that Vinnie Chieco, an advertising copywriter working with Apple, constantly heard Jobs talking about the Mac as the centre of the so-called digital hub: the computer would be the central point to which we would connect cameras, players and other devices.
Because of this, Chieco began imagining the Mac as a large spaceship from which small capsules, or pods, would emerge. And when, later on, he saw the prototype of the new music player, small, white and extraordinarily simple, it immediately reminded him of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
At that point, everything made sense. All that remained was to add the “i” that Apple had already popularized with the iMac. And so, from that association between a space pod and Apple’s characteristic “i”, the name “iPod” was born.
It was also a name with one major advantage: it did not mean anything specific and could therefore stay with the product even as it evolved and changed. And it certainly did. The first iPod introduced in 2001 started out storing music and, over the years, gained photos, video, applications and an internet connection.
Following the same logic, when the iPhone arrived in 2007, Apple had already done half the work. The “i” had appeared in iMac, iBook, iTunes and iPod and had practically become Apple’s signature. So combining that letter with “phone” made it possible to recognize the product immediately as part of the same family. Something simple, elegant and unmistakable.
Air, Pro, Max, and Ultra: when the surname tells us what to expect
Over time, Apple has built an entire language in which just a few words allow us to quickly place each product even before looking at its specifications. Air, Pro, Max, Ultra, mini or Plus quickly describe each product within its range. “Pro” tells us about greater performance, “Max” takes it further, “Ultra” sits at the very top, “mini” reduces the format, “Plus” increases the size or features, and “Air” maintains that idea of lightness, of barely weighing anything, which began with the 2008 MacBook Air.
In fact, understanding this language also helps us better understand which device is right for us. At Hanaringo, we are Apple specialists and offer personalized training and technical support for individuals and businesses. The sessions are adapted to what you need and take place over the phone, with remote screen access whenever necessary. We can help with the initial setup of a device, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, as well as Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iCloud, Photos, storage, accounts and social media, security, privacy, or complete technical support. Each session is tailored exactly to what you need, helping you solve questions, build confidence, and get the most out of your Apple devices.
So, Macintosh came from an apple variety, Lisa concealed a family connection and iPod emerged from imagining a small space pod. Very different stories that ended up giving names to some of Apple’s most important products. Over the years, these words have become so familiar that today it is difficult for us to imagine Apple without them. How would it sound to us to talk about Bicycle instead of Macintosh?
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