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Maybe because they have simple and straightforward names that it's reasonable to expect most people will understand. Whereas if you said "my Dell Latitude 3300"

Maybe because they have simple and straightforward names that it's reasonable to expect most people will understand. Whereas if you said "my Dell Latitude 3300" most people would have no specific mental image for that. Like it or not, the simplicity of Apple's product line and naming scheme makes their product names more meaningful.

gabriel34 13y ago
What generation is his Macbook Pro? ;)
- tomkarlo 13y ago
  In terms of what the hand rests look like, it doesn't matter. They've been the same since the introduction in 2006. :)
tripzilch 13y ago
no it's the other way around. if people who own another brand of device would mention the name every other time, we'd have (or make sure to have) a good mental image for those as well. Like a William Gibson novel. I don't know what a "Dell Latitude 3300" looks like because its owners do not mention they own one when they talk about "their laptop". If they did, after a few mentions, I'd have gotten a clearer idea on the type of machine, or have looked it up. there's nothing more meaningful about "MacBook Pro" than, say, "EeePC Seashell" (which is arguably an even more evocative name). and especially among computer geeks who care for this kind of thing, adding a series number instead of some word, isn't a problem and actually helps. Apple laptops have numbers too, right? It's easier for me, even because I don't keep track of all the different kinds of Macbooks out there, at least for iOS I can figure "higher number is newer". Just the term "Macbook Pro" merely tells me it's shiny, probably white or aluminium, expensive and owner is either from the US or in the graphic design/music industry. Posted from my Asus EeePC 1215B "Seashell", with Linux Mint, hooked up to a Samsung SyncMaster SA350 24" monitor, typed on a Microsoft Comfort Curv--ahh, sod it.
- tomkarlo 13y ago
  No, because even if users tried to do that, the panopoly of non-Apple PCs out there, and their regular name changes, would counfound any kind of traction. Apple laptops don't have numbers in the last decade. There's been several generations of the "MacBook Pro". The screen size is a descriptor and not actually part of the product name. The same effect is evident in cars: if I say "BMW 3-series" or "328i" you have a pretty good idea what I'm talking about, but if I say "Kia Cadenza"... and that's because BMW has maintained that brand for what, 30 years now?
- quadrige 13y ago
  Yes but precisely, people are never going to mention their exact laptop name because brands like Dell choose to produce 20 variations of each laptop they create, each one harder to remember than the precedent. Apple has such a little number of portable macs (two actually: air and pro) that everyone remembers it. And they also chose a simple way to tell the difference between each iteration: the production year, as well as the screen size, which are two criterias very understandable to everyone. It's not about what people choose to say, it's about Apple's clever naming conventions.

gabriel34 13y ago

What generation is his Macbook Pro? ;)

tomkarlo 13y ago
In terms of what the hand rests look like, it doesn't matter. They've been the same since the introduction in 2006. :)

tripzilch 13y ago

no it's the other way around. if people who own another brand of device would mention the name every other time, we'd have (or make sure to have) a good mental image for those as well. Like a William Gibson novel. I don't know what a "Dell Latitude 3300" looks like because its owners do not mention they own one when they talk about "their laptop". If they did, after a few mentions, I'd have gotten a clearer idea on the type of machine, or have looked it up. there's nothing more meaningful about "MacBook Pro" than, say, "EeePC Seashell" (which is arguably an even more evocative name). and especially among computer geeks who care for this kind of thing, adding a series number instead of some word, isn't a problem and actually helps. Apple laptops have numbers too, right? It's easier for me, even because I don't keep track of all the different kinds of Macbooks out there, at least for iOS I can figure "higher number is newer". Just the term "Macbook Pro" merely tells me it's shiny, probably white or aluminium, expensive and owner is either from the US or in the graphic design/music industry. Posted from my Asus EeePC 1215B "Seashell", with Linux Mint, hooked up to a Samsung SyncMaster SA350 24" monitor, typed on a Microsoft Comfort Curv--ahh, sod it.

tomkarlo 13y ago
No, because even if users tried to do that, the panopoly of non-Apple PCs out there, and their regular name changes, would counfound any kind of traction. Apple laptops don't have numbers in the last decade. There's been several generations of the "MacBook Pro". The screen size is a descriptor and not actually part of the product name. The same effect is evident in cars: if I say "BMW 3-series" or "328i" you have a pretty good idea what I'm talking about, but if I say "Kia Cadenza"... and that's because BMW has maintained that brand for what, 30 years now?
quadrige 13y ago
Yes but precisely, people are never going to mention their exact laptop name because brands like Dell choose to produce 20 variations of each laptop they create, each one harder to remember than the precedent. Apple has such a little number of portable macs (two actually: air and pro) that everyone remembers it. And they also chose a simple way to tell the difference between each iteration: the production year, as well as the screen size, which are two criterias very understandable to everyone. It's not about what people choose to say, it's about Apple's clever naming conventions.