Fast Company, “Why You Won’t Be Wearing an iWatch”

September 10, 2014

Rebecca Greenfield, “Why You Won’t Be Wearing an iWatch” (Fast Company, Sept. 10, 2014)

“Even if it was precipitated by trademark wrangling, it may very well be a canny move to leave the ‘i-‘ prefix in the past,” linguist and Wall Street Journal language columnistBen Zimmer told Fast Company. The whole iGimmick might define Apple, but Zimmer called it a “double edged sword.” Note that Apple also went with Apple Pay and not iPay. “You run the risk of ‘iWatch’ being interpreted as ‘I Watch’ and ‘iPay’ as ‘I Pay.'” Plus, at this point, iThings, which are not exclusive to Apple, are old-hat. …

“Much as the ‘e-‘ prefix has been largely abandoned (outside of established terms like ’email’ and ‘ecommerce’), the ‘i-‘ prefix may soon sound rather quaint, a reminder of an earlier technological age,” said Zimmer.

Read the rest here.

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