5 ms·

They’ve been doing this with a lot of products for a long time. “Today we announce iPhone … with iPhone you can do anything!” I think it is very strange.

Silica6149 4y ago
It certainly sounds weird to english speakers. I imagine they shorten sentences to not lose people's attention.
- eproxus 4y ago
  Would it be equally weird or correct to write the macOS? After all, it’s short for “Mac Operating System”. I’m not a native speaker so I’m genuinely curious.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  It's deliberate. I guarantee that it's about building a "brand mindset." They've been playing with text copy for decades. If you say "iPhone," instead of "The iPhone," you've turned "iPhone" into a pronoun. That has a different "connection" to people that hear it. Branding seems to be something that a lot of tecchies (including Yours Truly) have difficulty with. There's a lot of subtle psychological games that aren't easy to quantify.
  - Adraghast 4y ago
    Do you mean common noun instead of pronoun?
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      I think of it as a “pronoun.” It makes it into a “person,” or some kind of major deal, like we call localities (usually) by their single pronouns. Sometimes, “The” becomes part of the pronoun, like “The Netherlands,” or “The Bronx.” Usually, though, we assign pronouns (I’m not an English major, though, so the proper term may be different). Like, you can’t have “a brooklyn,” or “an amsterdam.” They want to make it so we can’t have “an iPhone.” Good luck with that…
      - whynaut 4y ago
        The term you want is Proper Noun.
        ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        That makes sense. Thanks!
      - skyyler 4y ago
        >Like, you can't have "a brooklyn" Every Brooklyn outside of the one in NYC is just "a Brooklyn" and not "THE Brookyln"
        ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        Fair point. Then you also have Brookline, in Bastin.
    - wizofaus 4y ago
      It's already a proper noun (not a pronoun!), but it's being treated almost as though the name of every individual Apple device is the product brand name, which is weird. Using a product brand name without an article is normally only done for uncountable/mass noun things like "gorilla glue" or many food/drink products.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Only if you don't pay much attention to PR. Lots of manufacturers talk this way when referring to their own products. Apple isn't blazing a new trail here.
pigtailgirl 4y ago
-- doesn't the imply there are others of similar? maybe what apple is saying is that there is no other iPhone except the iPhone so the is redundant? - just a guess - i agree it's odd --
JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
One of the first ways a cult gets everyone on the same page is altered language and speech patterns.
- Silica6149 4y ago
  I mean, apple knows their customer base. It wouldn't be unlikely that their writing is somehow catered to who they know would buy their devices.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  Fortunately I have free-thinking windows installed on my desktop to counteract my Apple cultist indoctrination.
  - millzlane 4y ago
    For me it's android. As long as I can replace the default apps like the sms app and the launcher. I will continue to use android.
- Karsteski 4y ago
  It really does seem very cult-like with the way Apple wants everyone to change up English for their product specifically...
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    If you think this is changing up English, you may not be speaking English as a first language? Referring to products as a proper noun is very common. E.g. Ford will tell you "Mustang offers a powerful engine... blah blah blah" not "The Mustang offers..."
    - Karsteski 4y ago
      English is my first language, and yes to me that sentence would sound odd. Perhaps that's something common in American advertisement and not elsewhere
gumby 4y ago
Even they find it hard to keep up this stupid convention. Ppl who work there of course say “the iPhone” but you even see it slip out frequently on stage at the big events. Even Steve Jobs, the originator of this convention and supposed stickler for detail used to say “the iphone” quite a bit.
BaseballPhysics 4y ago
They're treating "MacBook Air" as a proper noun. It's to personify their products, presumably with the idea that people will "connect" to them, for some hollow, tech-oriented definition of "connect".

Silica6149 4y ago

It certainly sounds weird to english speakers. I imagine they shorten sentences to not lose people's attention.

eproxus 4y ago
Would it be equally weird or correct to write the macOS? After all, it’s short for “Mac Operating System”. I’m not a native speaker so I’m genuinely curious.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
It's deliberate. I guarantee that it's about building a "brand mindset." They've been playing with text copy for decades. If you say "iPhone," instead of "The iPhone," you've turned "iPhone" into a pronoun. That has a different "connection" to people that hear it. Branding seems to be something that a lot of tecchies (including Yours Truly) have difficulty with. There's a lot of subtle psychological games that aren't easy to quantify.
- Adraghast 4y ago
  Do you mean common noun instead of pronoun?
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    I think of it as a “pronoun.” It makes it into a “person,” or some kind of major deal, like we call localities (usually) by their single pronouns. Sometimes, “The” becomes part of the pronoun, like “The Netherlands,” or “The Bronx.” Usually, though, we assign pronouns (I’m not an English major, though, so the proper term may be different). Like, you can’t have “a brooklyn,” or “an amsterdam.” They want to make it so we can’t have “an iPhone.” Good luck with that…
    - whynaut 4y ago
      The term you want is Proper Noun.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        That makes sense. Thanks!
    - skyyler 4y ago
      >Like, you can't have "a brooklyn" Every Brooklyn outside of the one in NYC is just "a Brooklyn" and not "THE Brookyln"
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        Fair point. Then you also have Brookline, in Bastin.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    It's already a proper noun (not a pronoun!), but it's being treated almost as though the name of every individual Apple device is the product brand name, which is weird. Using a product brand name without an article is normally only done for uncountable/mass noun things like "gorilla glue" or many food/drink products.
rootusrootus 4y ago
Only if you don't pay much attention to PR. Lots of manufacturers talk this way when referring to their own products. Apple isn't blazing a new trail here.

pigtailgirl 4y ago

-- doesn't the imply there are others of similar? maybe what apple is saying is that there is no other iPhone except the iPhone so the is redundant? - just a guess - i agree it's odd --

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago

One of the first ways a cult gets everyone on the same page is altered language and speech patterns.

Silica6149 4y ago
I mean, apple knows their customer base. It wouldn't be unlikely that their writing is somehow catered to who they know would buy their devices.
bigDinosaur 4y ago
Fortunately I have free-thinking windows installed on my desktop to counteract my Apple cultist indoctrination.
- millzlane 4y ago
  For me it's android. As long as I can replace the default apps like the sms app and the launcher. I will continue to use android.
Karsteski 4y ago
It really does seem very cult-like with the way Apple wants everyone to change up English for their product specifically...
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  If you think this is changing up English, you may not be speaking English as a first language? Referring to products as a proper noun is very common. E.g. Ford will tell you "Mustang offers a powerful engine... blah blah blah" not "The Mustang offers..."
  - Karsteski 4y ago
    English is my first language, and yes to me that sentence would sound odd. Perhaps that's something common in American advertisement and not elsewhere

gumby 4y ago

Even they find it hard to keep up this stupid convention. Ppl who work there of course say “the iPhone” but you even see it slip out frequently on stage at the big events. Even Steve Jobs, the originator of this convention and supposed stickler for detail used to say “the iphone” quite a bit.

BaseballPhysics 4y ago

They're treating "MacBook Air" as a proper noun. It's to personify their products, presumably with the idea that people will "connect" to them, for some hollow, tech-oriented definition of "connect".