Apple's Naming Conventions are Confusing: Here's how they will be fixed.

[NewtonPippin]

This is a bit broader than just the iPhone but lets be honest here. The iPhone and all Mac product naming is completely confusing and hard to understand. There are minis, pros SEs, Pluses, Airs, etc. What does it all mean? Anyone who isn't a complete tech nerd would have no idea.

But I have a way that it can be made completely clear. Standardize on Mini/Air/Pro representing the three tiers.

iPhone: Currently we have the iPhone SE, the iPhone 6S, and the iPhone 6S Plus. When the 7 comes out, we will have: iPhone Mini, iPhone Air, and iPhone Pro. The iPhone Air will come in two sizes, 4.7 and 5.5, as will the iPhone Pro, but like the iPad the iPhone pro will be beefed up, brand new design - The new glass design that has been leaked. Future iterations will not have numbers, but just be denoted by the year (Late 2016, Late 2017, etc).

iPad: Currently there is the mini, air, and pro. It already fits the scheme! Perfect.

MacBook: Right now we have a MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. The MacBook will be renamed to MacBook Mini, and made smaller.

Mac: We have iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini. Hence, Apple will rename iMac to Mac Air and then voila.

We now have a consistent scheme with mini, air, and pro representing successive improvements in power/capability. The mini will be the smallest most portable version of each, the Air will be the "all around" device, and the pro will be the top of the line. No more confusing naming schemes, everything standardized.

By the way, this isn't all conjecture. Speaking with Ming Chi Kuo, I have reason to believe that Apple is working towards something very much like this. What do you guys think?

 

[T5BRICK]

What do you guys think?

I think you're making stuff up. MacBook mini and Mac Air don't make any sense.

 

[Prof Farnsworth]

iPhone: Currently we have the iPhone SE, the iPhone 6S, and the iPhone 6S Plus. When the 7 comes out, we will have: iPhone Mini, iPhone Air, and iPhone Pro. The iPhone Air will come in two sizes, 4.7 and 5.5, as will the iPhone Pro, but like the iPad the iPhone pro will be beefed up, brand new design - The new glass design that has been leaked. Future iterations will not have numbers, but just be denoted by the year (Late 2016, Late 2017, etc).

Can't see apple releasing 5 new iphones all at once. What are you basing 2 seperate phones for each the Pro and the Air? At best I can see 4.7being the air and the 5.5 being the pro.

I don't know, seems a bit odd that they would change their current structure, but I've been wrong before.

 

[dwfaust]

Speaking with Ming Chi Kuo, I have reason to believe that Apple is working towards something very much like this. What do you guys think?

You speak with Ming? Tell him I said hello.

 

[NewtonPippin]

At best I can see 4.7being the air and the 5.5 being the pro.

That's possible too, the point is im pretty confident there will be a mini air and pro. Maybe the 5.5 inch will just become the pro

 

[dwfaust]

I think you're making stuff up. MacBook mini and Mac Air don't make any sense.

I agree... sounds like pure gibberish to me...

 

[Paddle1]

Using years for phones would not go over well, you bought the Late 2013 iPhone in Early 2016? Which 2013 iPhone? It's more confusing than what we have now.

 

[e93to]

Do what cars do, and divide the products into 3 segments - entry level, mid-level and flagship.

iPhone Mini, iPhone and iPhone Pro

iPad Mini, iPad and iPad Pro

Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro

MacBook, MacBook Pro

I'll come back to this thread in a couple of months to see how much of what OP posted becomes reality. I'm mostly interested in whether he really did speak with Ming.

 

[bufffilm]

Sorry noobie...bad idea.

Use the search function to find past threads...always noobs who think they've got good ideas.

 

[ARizz44]

Honestly they could call it the iPhone turd or the MacBook Pony. As long as I can differentiate which product it is, I don't see an issue with whatever naming convention they use.

 

[cableguy84]

iPhone mini... sounds crap

 

[Gav2k]

It'll be as an example 'iPhone 10th anniversary edition 256gb space grey'

Bit of a mouthful but hey lol

Op - Apple won't rename anything

 

[BMcCoy]

They've had several opportunities over the last few years to homogenise the naming, and have gone in completely the other direction... from the + phones, to the Pro ipads, to the nanos, the minis and the MacBook without any qualifier!

So they've deliberately NOT merged the naming conventions. For whatever reason. So no, I don't see them suddenly reversing course on this any time soon.

 

[ABC5S]

We get these Naming schemes often on this forum. Stop it.....Apple does what Apple does and no matter how many bored individuals that come here to post these silly "What to call the iPhone, etc" it won't happen.

 

[NewtonPippin]

We get these Naming schemes often on this forum. Stop it.....Apple does what Apple does and no matter how many bored individuals that come here to post these silly "What to call the iPhone, etc" it won't happen.

Okay... well you heard it here first.

 

[dwfaust]

Okay... well you heard it here first.

No, actually, there are dozens of similar threads around here proposing a new naming scheme. You are not the first, and you won't be the last.

 

[eyoungren]

Okay... well you heard it here first.

Here's one…

Mac: PowerMac and iMac
Laptop: PowerBook and iBook

Real simple. You know which one is the low end and which one is the high end.

Oh right! The Intel transition happened in 2006 and all that went down the crapper! Now we have people who can't even figure out that PowerMac Pros and MacBook G4s do NOT exist.

Apple's current confusing naming convention is their own damn fault and ten years on they don't seem to have any interest in fixing it. Maybe they'll solve it like you said, IDK. But I doubt it. Confusion about model names equals profit.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Here's one…

Mac: PowerMac and iMac
Laptop: PowerBook and iBook

Real simple. You know which one is the low end and which one is the high end.

Oh right! The Intel transition happened in 2006 and all that went down the crapper! Now we have people who can't even figure out that PowerMac Pros and MacBook G4s do NOT exist.

Apple's current confusing naming convention is their own damn fault and ten years on they don't seem to have any interest in fixing it. Maybe they'll solve it like you said, IDK. But I doubt it. Confusion about model names equals profit.

I'm still waiting on the PowerBook G5. Maybe this Tuesday for sure??

 

[eyoungren]

I'm still waiting on the PowerBook G5. Maybe this Tuesday for sure??

Yeah, I'll get Jony to finish up on the damn thing. At the same time they should be releasing all the PowerPC builds for Snow Leopard and up.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

iPhone sells by far the most units, many to people who do not have Macs or iPads. So why give the dominant product names that require knowledge of other Apple products for the context to make sense? "Just how small is the iPhone Mini? Is it bigger than a Watch?"

I think using Mini for iPad and Mac is confusing enough. Mac Mini has no display. Clearly, the iPad Mini does. Mac Mini is relatively underpowered - iPad Mini is not necessarily under-powered. For complete consistency... Don't worry about consistency between dissimilar product lines.

 

[kurtatx]

iMac becomes Mac

Mac Pro, Mac, Mac Mini
Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, MacBook

No way there's a Macbook "mini". Mini is not a good descriptor for a computer, IMHO.

 

[Squirreladd]

if you ask me apple's biggest problem is it's numbering scheme. Here's an idea. NO IPHONE 7. iPhone 2017 same as car years. Makes it easier. This will be the tenth iPhone. Does anyone know where we are with the ipad. That is super confusing.

iPhone 2017
iPhone 2017 plus
iPhone 2017 SE

Boom. It also brings it in line with the Mac line which is normally identified by it's year number.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Not confused here. It is not that hard people.

 

[SuperKerem]

Never happening. Your suggestion would make things more complex than they already are!

 

[ApfelKuchen]

if you ask me apple's biggest problem is it's numbering scheme. Here's an idea. NO IPHONE 7. iPhone 2017 same as car years. Makes it easier. This will be the tenth iPhone. Does anyone know where we are with the ipad. That is super confusing.

iPhone 2017
iPhone 2017 plus
iPhone 2017 SE

Boom. It also brings it in line with the Mac line which is normally identified by it's year number.

It'll be a lot harder to sell an "iPhone 2016" in 2017 than it'll be to sell an iPhone 6s in 2017. The current practice in smart phones is to sell the same model for several years - first as the top-of-the-line model, then as the mid-line model, and finally as entry-level. As soon as the name of the product is also the date of manufacture, the clock starts ticking on its attractiveness (isn't that also why people lie about their age?)

Car makers don't actually sell "Chevrolet 2017 Volt" - the product name for marketing purposes is "Chevy Volt." You'd have to look really hard to find "2017" anywhere on the vehicle. They mention the year in sales materials only to make the point that it is the latest edition.

Your example wouldn't quite bring things in line with how Apple does things for Mac, either. The year doesn't factor into the name anywhere nearly as prominently as you claim.

Here's how they're identified on the product pages of Apple.com:
21.5-inch iMac
21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display

When you look in About This Mac or at the Technical Specifications pages, they're listed like this:
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

If Apple were following something closer to auto industry practices, it'd be more like:
iPhone Cruze (2016)
iPhone Impala (2016)
iPhone Tahoe (2016)