And I doubt Apple would ever actually use the term. I'm sure that their "use" or protection of it through the means cited above is only a roundabout way of protecting it from abuse by others. I've seen elsewhere the term "iPod Phone" which would make more sense to me, and it sounds better as well. I've never liked the term "iPhone" and hope that Apple wouldn't be tacky enough to use this term themselves.... So, while I'm sure they would be smart enough to protect it, I hope they are also smart enough to not actually call any shipping product an iPhone--besides, by now, it's almost tainted by the abuse in the media!
-Jon

I tried the "i" combinations I could think of for an Apple cell phone, but all are in commercial use:

iPhone (Linksys)
iTalk (Griffin)
iCall
iConnect
iSpeak
iCel
iCell

About the only one I thought of that they could use would be some variant of iChat, like "iChat Phone," or maybe "PodPhone" or "PhonePod."

Edit: JonGl posted his message while I was writing mine.

Of course, as John hinted at the end, Apple could just call it "iPod." They didn't call the iPod 5G, "iPod video"--the press did that.

There's lots of ways to spell "phone", just ask anyone who IMs.

How about:

"iMobile"

How about "iCantBelieveYouGuysAreStillTalkingAboutThisVaporwareAppleCellPhone"?

But if you all really want to know the real name... It's "icicle", as in cool. And while Apple is making the OS and applications for it, Motorola is doing the manufacturing and the marketing. "Apple Icicle by Motorola". You heard it here first.

How about iFone ? Nice - short - and different:)) sounds and LOOKS more like and Apple term to me.

iPod with phone.

There's always MacPhone

My guess?

iChat Mobile

I don't see that one yet!

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Guest wrote:
How about:

"iMobile"

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Guest wrote:
How about iFone ? Nice - short - and different:)) sounds and LOOKS more like and Apple term to me.

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geoduck wrote:
There's always MacPhone

iChat Mobile

What do u think about ePod

Just change the i by a e and look à the result.

Mmm - iCycle. It cycles between iTunes and making calls and making diary notes and keeping track of appointments. And it's cool.

Bosco, you and I can divvy up to profits…

The real problem with "iPhone" as an Apple brand is that it just associates Apple with a generic, commodity thing. It doesn't create a thing that all competitors then strive to be. Take the original iMac. It made color choice for all kinds of products which weren't automobiles cool. Take the iPod. It instantly redefined the MP3 player space and gave it a name which Apple trademark lawyers and Apple marketers probably fought tough internal battles over how to preserve the mark. Look at something like the iSight camera, which is now "built-in" to MacBooks and iMacs. It's gone from stylish product to pinhole sized feature. Probably a good example of when iWhatever makes only a small splash.

Apple can't release an evolutionary device or a simple hybrid device. The established manufacturers are already doing these things very well and on very short development cycles. The only thing I can think of that they can revolutionize would be to make an "everywhere phone". It could use your landline, a WiFi hotspot, or a mobile phone network to place and receive calls to a single number. Bonus points if it could open my garage door too.

At any rate, when this thing doesn't materialize, expect AAPL to drop the low 70s and the usual suspect analysts to whip us all into a frenzy with more impending iPhone news. Will we ever get wise to their game?

Maybe you feel the spelling is illiterate gslusher but Fone is a fairly common spelling around the world and one that many people would recognize. Maybe not a grammatically correct one but common at any rate - remember not everyone is an American and most likely this will be a world phone. Also you might want to check out the ownership of iFone.com - just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR! BTW the domain ifone.com isn't being used it just points to another company.

And thank you very much for your bigoted view that "some areas" needed to list the phone company under fone. I guess you live in a large metro area where nobody is illiterate? I wonder where that utopia is.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. "Fone" is not a grammatically correct spelling, because there's no such thing. It's either "correct spelling" or it is not.

"Fone" is like "Karl's Kwik Krazy Kars" and other supposedly catchy advertising labels. Vodafone is a good example, where "fone" has been incorporated into a marketing brand, and has become a "thing in itself". Whenever I see "Vodafone", I don't see it as a word ending in "fone", I see may carrier's name. I bought my current mobile phone at "Mobile Fone Solutions". I just shrugged, went in and bought it anyway.

Good grammar and spelling is not so that people can point out that others are ignorant, although I'm with gslusher on his point of having to redirect people from looking a "fone". (FFS!) It's so when others read your sentences, they don't have to go back and re-read them to find out what you were trying to say. "just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR!" I think I know what you were on about, but I have read that sentence three or four times and I don't know exactly.

Large metro areas don't necessarily have better literacy rate than others. There are no areas, anywhere, where everyone is literate (although I understand that Cuba's rates are world-beating!) Note that gslusher didn't mention large urban areas; those were your words. So where's the bigotry?

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Anonymous wrote:
Maybe you feel the spelling is illiterate gslusher but Fone is a fairly common spelling around the world and one that many people would recognize. Maybe not a grammatically correct one but common at any rate - remember not everyone is an American and most likely this will be a world phone. Also you might want to check out the ownership of iFone.com - just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR! BTW the domain ifone.com isn't being used it just points to another company.

And thank you very much for your bigoted view that "some areas" needed to list the phone company under fone. I guess you live in a large metro area where nobody is illiterate? I wonder where that utopia is.

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LaurieF wrote:
just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR!

How about bringing back the word "Power" (as in "Power Book") and calling a telephone enabled iPod the "Power Pod."

It seems that this phone will be an iPod first and a phone second. The iPhone may be an internal name or a name used by the media. Note that the iTV will be called something else upon its release. I agree with John. It will probably have the name iPod in its title. iPodPhoneCameraPDA?

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Anonymous wrote:

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LaurieF wrote:
just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR!

If you're going to preach about grammar and spelling, please check your own first. I think "where" should be "were".

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Anonymous wrote:

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LaurieF wrote:
just a hint check out the #2 board of directors member - they where executive VP at a small movie company for 5 years - PIXAR!

If you're going to preach about grammar and spelling, please check your own first. I think "where" should be "were".

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gslusher wrote:
Check again. Laurie put those words in quotation marks because they came from the message she was replying to. It helps to read messages in context and to direct your criticism at the person who actually wrote the text you cited.

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LaurieF wrote:
Umm, it's "he", not "she".

And here, Laurie is an unusual name for a woman, although it does exist.

And that really goes to prove, by happenchance, my point. What things (or people) are called is not really that important. In little time, nobody will give a toss for whatever Apple calls its putative phone - it'll be absorbed into the phone itself.

Take, for example, iPod. I think the cliché is: What's with that? What does the "pod" in that mean? is it something small for putting things in? is it a seed from which a flower will bloom? is it an MP3 player?

Whatever Apple comes out with in the form of a communication device, heretofore unanimously referred to as the iPhone, it will be, as all such devices now are, a great deal more than a phone.
I suggest that it could be named the iCom. I communicate. It retains the "i" designator, as an Apple product, and states, simply, more than "phone". Which it undoubtledly will be.
I would like to have an iCom.

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arkough wrote:
Whatever Apple comes out with in the form of a communication device, heretofore unanimously referred to as the iPhone, it will be, as all such devices now are, a great deal more than a phone.
I suggest that it could be named the iCom. I communicate. It retains the "i" designator, as an Apple product, and states, simply, more than "phone". Which it undoubtledly will be.
I would like to have an iCom.

Apple PiPhone?