What’s in a name?
A lot.
One announcement from Steve Jobs in his history-making unveiling of the iPhone today was that he is changing the name of the mother company by dropping the word “computers” from Apple Computers. (Ed note: See comments) This seem so innocent, but it is enormous and a reflection of the way our world is rapidly evolving.
Apple isn’t “just” a computer company anymore.
I had a great chat this morning with an old friend who works at a major U.S. university. She told me the board is considering dropping “mass” from the Mass Communications Department. Other schools have already done this, and it, too, is reflective of our changing world.
There is a great lesson here for local television stations, because the quickest path to the tarpits is to cling to the notion that we are TV stations. I rarely use that term in presentations these days, because I’m addressing local multi-media companies who happen to have a TV station.
This is Media 2.0 101.
What’s in a name? A lot.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Media 2.0, Broadcasting, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 9th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
If you’ll forgive me Terry, I’ll use your typo to make a point:one reason may well be that Jobs got tired of people calling it Apple ‘Computers’ (plural) when it was Apple Computer (singular)–if I had a dime for the Chyrons I’ve seen on air with that typo, I’d…well.
I live in a neighborhood in Atlanta with a similar problem…it’s ‘Virginia-Highland’, but people keep calling it ‘Virginia-Highlands,’ like ‘K-Marts’ or ‘Krogers.’ So dropping the ‘Computer’ not only orients the company more squarely toward its future, but takes care of a typo-prone component of their brand. As for our neighborhood, maybe we can become just ‘VH.’ ‘VH1′, maybe. Jobs has a similar personal branding-typo problem…if I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen it as ‘Steve Job’s’…
January 9th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
You know, I actually thought of that and then dismissed it. I should always go with my gut. Thanks for the note.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:36 am
i know you’ve emntioned this before, but it must be somewhat rewarding to see what you’ve been saying for so long start to take hold.
it once only made them roll their eyes.
been there.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Isn’t Apple a record label?