On August 15, 1998 Apple Computer started a revolution. No, I'm not talking about cool looking computers, bright translucent colors, or killing the floppy disk. I'm talking about iStuff. They brought us the iMac, and soon iMovie, and the iBook, as well as iTunes, and even iDVD. In fact, Apple even has an iCEO in Steve Jobs. But why is this a revolution?

Number four in the iFruit series. (Click to see full image)

It's a revolution because now we seem to be living in an iWorld. I have seen iTVs, iRadios, iIrons, iFans, iPaqs (the stupid little PDA from Compaq), iCameras, and way too much more. As Jason Fox of the popular Fox Trot comic strip once said "iThink iWill bSick." In fact, this has got many people up in arms, not just for copying Apple, but for consistently doing it.

Just head on over to your local Target or Wal-Mart store. The electronics areas aren't the only one's full of colorful translucent iPlastics. Take a peak in the sporting goods, housewares, pet supplies, and everywhere else you can think of. You will be bombarded by iStuff everywhere. But that's not the half of it. Many people seem to think, that because the 'i' precedes the name, that asserts the device is for use with the Internet. This is not completely true.

The Computers that started it all.

To back up this claim, they say that the iMac was the original Internet Mac, iMovie is used for putting home movies on the Internet, iTunes uses the Internet for picking up broadcasts and using the CDDB database for song identification, and iTools is a suite of Tools specifically for the Internet. Then they go on to say "Apple has gone too far with this iStuff," because of the iDVD, iServices, and especially the iCEO. But the thing is, the 'i' has never really stood for 'Internet', that is just a byproduct of having products that integrate well with it.

Instead, the 'i' stands for a word that doesn't even start with 'i'. In fact, it starts with 'c'. That word is 'consumer'. That's right. All of these iDevices are consumer devices. They are not "top of the line", expensive, professional products. They are mid-line, less expensive, consumer products. Take the iMac for example. It has a big brother, the PowerMac G4. The iMac is a consumer machine, while the G4 is a professional machine.

Is this going too far?

This goes for the iStuff appliance fad as well. The iTVs are smaller, less expensive TVs, that are aimed at users with a lower budget. iCameras are normally disposable, or have very limited features, which means they are not aimed at the big wig photographer, but rather children and others on a budget. And the iBook is definitely not as strong of a machine as the Titanium G4, but it was never meant to be.

To drill my point even harder, I'll do a partial quote from Steve Jobs at the MacWorld 1999 Expo in New York: "Well, all of our portable machines end with the word 'Book,' and our consumer machines start with the letter 'i', so naturally, we named it the iBook." Straight from the horse's mouth (with a little leeway on exact wording). So, obviously, Apple meant for the iStuff to be marketed towards consumers, and non iStuff to be marketed towards professionals.

There you have it, the real meaning behind the iStuff. I think we all know why so many companies copied this trend, because Apple is so darn cool! Now, if we could only find a way to stop all of these bright, translucent colors, and get rid of most of this iStuff, we can go back to living dreary, Microsoft-esque lives. Yeah, that's what we want. Sorry folks, that won't happen again. This is iGiantmike signing out.