The release of the new iPad was Tim Cook's first big product release since the death of Steve Jobs. My expectations were not very high. I was not expecting the new iPad to knock our socks off, but I also didn't expect the new Apple CEO to draw such a stark and definitive line between himself and one of the world's most creative minds by picking such an uncreative name for the product. I think it's actually a non-name, but that's another post entirely.
Not only did the name of the new iPad leave us all cold, but it left Apple with no real place to go for the next version of the iPad.
Will it be the Newer iPad? The Newest?
No, either of those names would lead to sheer confusion when an even newer version came out. Come to think of it, the name of the new iPad does the same thing.
"Hey, did you get the new iPad?"
"Yeah, I got the new iPad two years ago. Is there a newer one?"
"I'm talking about the real 'new iPad,' not the old new one."
"Wait, I have the newest iPad. Is that the new one?"
Get the point?
No matter how you slice it, the name was a bad choice that would have been very easy to avoid simply by assigning it a number or a letter. It could easily have been the iPad 3 or they could have gone with the iPad 2S, but after the widespread disappointment over the iPhone 4S when everyone was expecting the iPhone 5, I wouldn't have made that choice, either.
The only thing that makes sense is that Apple is planning to make this the last of the iPad line, and that the next version will be so completely different that it won't bear the name iPad at all. If that is not the case, I fear for Apple's future because hundreds of supposedly creative minds failed to come up with a viable name.
In fact, I don't think I'll refer to Tim Cook by his given name anymore. I'll apply his same level of creativity and just call him the new CEO - not CEO v4 or anything else even remotely descriptive or original.
Come on now, new CEO. Steve would not be proud.
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