Off The Record

People Left Speechless, After Learning What The “I” In iPhone Stands For

Published on December 26, 2024

10 guesses for what the ‘i’ in iPhone stands for and I bet you get them all wrong.

We’ve all been in the situation when we’re trying to fall asleep at night but our thoughts are racing with the big concerns of life, like which came first, the chicken or the egg, whether dinosaurs have touched the water we’re drinking, or what the “i” in iPhone stands for.

No? Only me? This is your lucky day if you’ve ever wondered how the iPhone got its name.

When the original iPhone was introduced in 2007, the first thing that made people wonder, “What’s the deal with Apple?” was its logo.

Though graphic designer Rob Janoff has stated that those theories are more of a “wonderful urban legend,” many have conjectured that it might be a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve or the apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s head.

In light of this, it’s likely that many of us haven’t given much thought to the genesis of the “I.”

Nonetheless, a number of people have gathered on social media to make educated assumptions about what the “I” might imply.

There have been references to terms like “intelligent” and “indispensable,” and one social media user even proposed that it just means “I” in reference to “my phone.”

Fortunately, Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, explained in 1998 what the letter “I” stands for. It turns out to be far more than you may imagine.

Steve Jobs affirmed that the “I” stands for “internet, individual, instruct, inform, and inspire,” according to Reader’s Digest.

The ‘I’ ‘didn’t have an official definition,’ he added, but it could alternatively refer to ‘I’ as a personal pronoun or ‘instruction’ for instructing Apple personnel.

Many others shared what they believed the “i” stood for, and many were shocked to finally have the meaning (kind of) confirmed.

In a TikTok and YouTube video about the topic, someone wrote: “I thought it was i for myself,” while another thought it meant ‘intelligent’.

A third said: “i thought it was because os iOS.”

While on YouTube, one person commented: “I guess you could say, “i” didn’t know this before.”

And another wrote: “This is what i wondered last night when i was trying to sleep…”

The same goes for social media users.