Jobs’ preferred name for the original iMac was… MacMan?
10:52 am, January 14th, 2010, John Brownlee
Back in November, our own personal Aleister Crowley of Cult of Mac, Leander, sat down and interviewed Ken Segall, the originator of the iMac name. According to Segall, Steve Jobs recognized he was “betting the company on the machine and so it needed a great name.” The only problem: the name Jobs had his heart set on was so bad it would “curdle your blood.” The original product name? MacMan, says Gizmodo.
Luckily, at the end of the day, iMac won out… but it wasn’t because Jobs let himself be swayed, according to Gizmodo’s sources, but rather because the name was already trademarked by a company called MidiMan, who had released a serial-to-MIDI adapter under that brand name. Apple made an offer; Midiman declined; Steve Jobs fumed and Segall got his way.
MacMan is, indeed, a blood-curdling name for a computer, but you can see the method in Jobs’ madness: bulbous and colorful, there is something about the original iMac’s design that channels the bouncing fruits of the famous 8-bit ghost gobbler… but it’s a name that would need to be abandoned as soon as the design was changed.
It’s interesting how different the entire Mac brand could be now if not for the serendipity of Jobs’ initial whim being thwarted. The lower case ‘i’ has transcendeded its initial meaning — Internet — and become a brand in its own right: an elegant prefix synonymous with iconic Apple product design.
Posted by John Brownlee in News, iMac | Comment on this article
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You mentioned Pac-Man, but it seems more obvious to me that Jobs was imitating the “Walkman,” Or perhaps even the Nintendo “Game Boy.” Both products with masculine tags.
But come on….MacMan? Just goes to show that Jobs isn’t perfect…
Cameron, on January 14th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Nice telepathy CoM,
Just yesterday on my way home from work, i remembered the original interview you guys published with Ken Segall and found myself wondering what name Steve Jobs would have preferred when he didn’t like the iMac moniker. I was going to try emailing him but this has satisfied my pondering.
Thanks =)
unfold, on January 14th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Cameron, I’m not so sure about that. After all, the Man suffix in the Walkman and Discman’s case implies portability. The MacMan — excuse me, iMac — wasn’t portable. I think it’s a PacMan connection, personally.
John Brownlee, on January 14th, 2010 at 11:17 am
How awesome! MacMan! Wouldn’t the PodMan be a great great great amazingly great name for an incredibly great product?
Sarcasm off. iGeneration I choose you!
Peter Hansen, on January 14th, 2010 at 11:55 am
because its Apple, maybe people will still accept the “macman” or what ever the name will be
loks, on January 14th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Good to remind us all that Jobs is, after all, human like the rest of us. That’s an awful name.
Mezzrow, on January 14th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
@loks – agreed – we accepted the God-awful, contrived ‘MacBook’ when PowerBook was a perfectly good – some would say, superior – brand name with strong perception in the market
Marky Mark, on January 14th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Didn’t Steve say “Apple must be more like Sony” when he came back in the 90s? Interesting that “copying Sony’s naming ideas” was good enough for him…
Wum, on January 15th, 2010 at 4:11 am
” transcendeded?” I know, your staff are too busy to check for typos, right? Hint: the dotted red underline does not mean your computer agrees with you.
Dear Audible, DealMac, etc: It’s too tiring to read posts from this site’s writers and have to mentally correct errors such as this, or wonder at posts by senior editors claiming the Apple Store does not sell USB-only drives.
I won’t be seeing your advertisements on this site as I’m deleting the RSS.
FeralFreq, on January 16th, 2010 at 4:28 am
Why the reference to the Prophet of the Aeon of Horus, Sir Aliester Crowley? It is not likely that many will know what you are referring to here,…so why use his name?
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
93
Love is the Law, Love under Will
Wesley, on January 27th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Don’t chastise them for it, Wesley!
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Aleister Crowley
Google that name if you would like to be free…
Love is the law, love under will.
Light, Life, Love and Liberty be upon you all.
Frater Oz
Oz, on February 14th, 2010 at 11:52 am