There’s No “i” in Books (Premium)

Like Microsoft, Apple is discovering that its core brand is stronger than any of its product brands. Is this the end of "i" branding at the consumer electronics giant?

A Bloomberg news piece suggests that Apple may finally be moving in this direction: The firm is allegedly testing a new version of its iBooks e-book software for iOS and macOS that will include a simpler user interface, a redesigned bookstore, and better support for audiobooks.

But the biggest change, to my mind, is that Apple is dropping the "i." That is, the app's name is changing from iBooks to Books.

This is significant, but it's not the first time that Apple has dropped the "i" from a product name: iTunes has morphed into Apple Music in recent years, for example. And less famously, iTunes Podcasts has become Podcasts.

Looked at more broadly, however, Apple has been shifting away from the cutesy "i" branding for years. This naming convention began in 1998 with the original iMac, where it stood for "Internet," in that adding simple Internet onboarding capabilities to a personal computer in that era was considered forward-leaning.

But it wasn't just the iMac: The branding stuck, and Apple began using it across virtually all of its consumer products. The iBook, for example, completed Apple's quadrant of consumer and professional desktop and portable Macs. And Apple went on to use the "i" branding on such famous hardware products as iPod, iPhone, and iPad, not to mention software like iTunes and iBooks.

The move away from this branding is, perhaps, overdue. As Microsoft has discovered, the company's core brand---"Microsoft"---is more important, well-known, and respected than any of its product brands. That's why you see Microsoft branding and logos on Surface PCs now, and why Windows Azure became Microsoft Azure. It's why Office 365 will transition, inevitably, into Microsoft 365.

Contrast this to the weirdness of such previous products as "Windows Media Player for Mac," which, yes, really was a thing. Users of other platforms---not just the Mac, but Android and iOS, too---are more likely to embrace Microsoft products than they are any sub-brands. In today's world, this kind of branding just makes more sense.

On that note, Apple's needs are somewhat similar: It only markets a few products on rival platforms---like Apple Music for Android---but removing the "i" branding will help with its own customer base, too, since those names suggest a consumer bent. For products that run on both Mac and iOS, it makes sense to lose the "i" names.

Of course, Apple's transition from this out-of-date branding won't impact certain popular products, like iPhone, anytime soon. But then, Microsoft hasn't dropped "Windows" or "Office" either.

What I do wonder is whether this change signals that Apple might open up its books platform to Android. After all, Apple Books has a nice ring to it.