Who’s the Genius Who Came Up With the Name iPad?
EmailABC's Brinda Adhikari reports from New York Months and months of anticipation, months of watching the rumor mill spin round and round as to what the contraption would actually look like, months of speculation over what new digital revolution Apple would spearhead next – and then finally, the moment of truth. A still-gaunt looking Steve Jobs appearing like a haloed prophet, gingerly holding up the 1.5 pound device that looks like a giant iPhone and proclaiming: the iPad. Wait, what?! The iPad? Women around the world shifted in their seats a bit awkwardly yesterday as the obvious connotations of the word rang loudly and clearly through their ears. Did he really call it what I think he called it? The cyber world went wild. "The iPad sounds like a feminine hygiene product for robot ladies.,” wrote one blogger. “I'm assuming there were no women on the naming team at Apple, ” wrote another. One woman went as far as saying that she might not buy it due to its evocative moniker. “Not gonna lie, the name iPad makes me shudder a bit,” tweeted Lisa Gumerman. “Kind of even makes me less interested in buying it.” And of course, who can forget that prescient MadTV skit from which apparently Apple marketers took inspiration? Before you could say “Steve Jobs needs to take a women’s studies course” the word “iTampon” was trending higher on Twitter than the word “iPad.” Here are just a few tweets: @getsmartradio: is it really called iPad? Did Apple merge with Kotex? @DontStealMyPen: Will women send their husbands to the Apple store to buy iPads? @BruinGirl2001: Will the next version of the #ipad come w/wings? Of course, it’s unlikely that the giggle-inducing name will have any real effect on sales of the iPad. One analyst said that Apple may have thought controversy about the name would help build the product to even greater heights. Either way, it’s become good fodder for the watercooler. Sort of makes one wonder what product name Apple will come up with next…
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Yeah, right. And place names like “Tampa” and “Virginia” make my wife squirm too.
Posted by: em | January 28, 2010, 1:00 pm 1:00 pm
Hey, you’re talking about it aren’t you? Maybe they’re more savy marketers that you think?
Posted by: Jason Hunter | January 28, 2010, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
Brinda’s reeeally struggling for something to write about today…
Posted by: Tim | January 28, 2010, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
What does the iApplicator look like.
Posted by: Bob | January 28, 2010, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
As a woman listening to the announcement yesterday, the connection between feminine products and this new technology didn’t even occur to me. As a working woman and a mother of two teenage boys, when I think of a pad – I think about writing, thoughts, ideas, to-do lists, homework – I’m sure you get the gist. This conversation and the previous (all male names or posts by the way) comments seems rather juvenile in this day and age. I say go Apple. Keep on innovating
Posted by: hallihunt | January 28, 2010, 2:18 pm 2:18 pm
Fujitsu came up with that name back in 2002a and has been selling their product since then.
Posted by: MEPace | January 28, 2010, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
My guess is that some Apple employee is a Trekker. TNG used the acronym PADD (personal access data display) to refer to those tablet-like gizmos the crew carried around. iPADD would have been much too obvious a reference.
Posted by: Publius | January 28, 2010, 3:18 pm 3:18 pm
Grow up! No one uses pads for feminine hygiene, plus if some idiot thinks that is offensine, then what do they do when the Feminime products commercials come on TV? I think iPad is a perfect name to go along with all the other Apple products. But some people like to make fun of just about anything that is going to be successful…..trying to bring it down to their level of jealousy. Comments must be from a hard loser competitor.
Posted by: Pat | January 28, 2010, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
Obviously none of these MALE emails wear PINK shirts either. It takes a REAL MAN to not make fun of things. I, personally, laugh at the Viagra and Cialis commercials, thinking that men, without a physical problem, use these drugs to be more manly. I have no problem, whatsoever talking about anything sold in a drugstore. Women talk about everything to anyone……that’s why they are so smart about so many things. I love the name, iPad. Would you rather have it be iTablet? Maybe then you could come up with some other reason not to like that name…..get real. As soon as the ipad hits the stores, I will buy one. To make a joke, isn’t it nice to know that the iPad is completely disposable! ha, ha. to all you men who can’t wear PINK. Insecure? Yes!
Posted by: Pat | January 28, 2010, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
What a wonder! Beavis and Butthead are alive in the mind of a female reporter!
This is silly and sophomoric. I’m writing Steve. You’re not going to get a review unit, Brinda. And if you go to an Apple store, they won’t sell one to you. No iPad for you!
Posted by: Jim H | January 28, 2010, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Next Apple will come out with the mini-iPad and all the jokes that come with that title will soon follow, but when all is said and done Apple creates amazing products and will laugh all the way to the bank.
Posted by: AKWI | January 28, 2010, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
>>Posted by: Publius : Grow up! No one uses pads for feminine hygiene,<<
Um…I know four who do. What do YOU use them for??
Posted by: CascadePD | January 28, 2010, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
As a single male, this issue never occurred to me.
Posted by: johnraccoon | January 28, 2010, 4:33 pm 4:33 pm
I personally enjoy those times when the evening meal amongst female companions happens to be chicken: I get to openly refer to chicken parts without raising much ire among the lady folkers …
Posted by: LeeRoy | January 28, 2010, 5:04 pm 5:04 pm
“Posted by: Publius Grow up! No one uses pads for feminine hygiene, plus if some idiot thinks that is offensine, then what do they do when the Feminime products commercials come on TV?”
Um…I use pads. My friends use pads. I actually know few women who don’t and actually menstruate… using tampons overnight increases the risk of toxic shock syndrome, so most semi intelligent people don’t do that. I do know a few Divacup users here or there who are pad free, and a couple people who just continuously take birth control…
Talking about female hygiene products isn’t offensive, or uncomfortable, IMHO. However equating something I use to collect the monthly shed of my uterine lining with consumer electronics is, well, odd. And somewhat funny. The infuriating part is that they, apparently, did not have very many women working on the project (if any, at all). Or maybe they did, and thought the publicity would be a long term positive? Who knows.
Posted by: Nicole | January 28, 2010, 10:27 pm 10:27 pm
Clearly a Republican rumor
Posted by: ayumanbean | January 28, 2010, 11:16 pm 11:16 pm
Got to say, if one didn’t think menstrual pad well, you aren’t thinking (or aware enough)….
A man who isn’t aware enough to think of women menstruating, well you need to be more aware unless women don’t interest you.
The naming of this product is a ridiculous oversight and there has been plenty of media and social coverage on the matter to prove that point.
Anyhow, it’s an over-sized ipod, right—or is it an under-sized computer? Definitely over priced.
Posted by: imapc | January 28, 2010, 11:49 pm 11:49 pm
The joke was funny for about 2 seconds, then it got old.
Posted by: Robert Smith | January 29, 2010, 12:16 am 12:16 am
Yes, we could say the jokes are just juvenile, grow up and get along with our lives, but here’s the clincher: MadTV made a parody of this years ago! Which now makes it a bad name. Period. (no pun intended. Really.)
If MadTV hadn’t done the segment, we’d all snicker a bit and get over it. It’s too late for that now. I think this will go down in the textbooks at B-school of what NOT to do and how comedy/social media can absolutely KILL an idea. Frankly, the whole thing cracks me up.
Posted by: Janeacm | January 29, 2010, 12:19 am 12:19 am
Just love seeing these Apple minions and how they defend their god Steve Jobs..
Posted by: AntiApple | February 5, 2010, 4:33 pm 4:33 pm