It’s easy to forget, as an Apple enthusiast who works and lives in this space most of the time, that there’s an entire population out there who still find Apple products – and computers, phones and tablets in general – to be mystifying devices. Even those folks who use them don’t understand much about them sometimes.
I work most weekends at an Apple Specialist retailer near my house. (If you’re in the area, feel free to stop in and say hi.) I hear people call Apple products by names that don’t even remotely resemble what they are. Like they’re just stringing together random syllables, or had a stroke and are suffering the effects of really severe aphasia.
I’ve been keeping notes that I’m gonna pass on to Apple’s marketing department eventually, because it entertains me how badly some of this stuff gets mangled. Here’s a roundup of some of things people ask for help with. Mind you, most of them own these things:
MacBook Pro
- Mac Pro
- Apple Pro Mac PC laptop
- Power MacBook
- PowerBook Pro
- This stupid thing that stopped working
MacBook Air
- Mac Air
- Mac AirBook Pro
- Airbook PC
- Mac laptop
iPod touch
- iTouch (by far the most frequent mistake)
- iPad mini touch
- iPhone without the phone part, whaddyacallit
- Touchpod
- Podtouch. You know, the iPod with the screen you can touch. Touchpad. iPod touch!
One thing people don’t usually get wrong? iPad. “iPad” is becoming like “Kleenex.” We regularly have people in the store who say, “Oh, the iPad? I have one of those. It’s by Kindle/Samsung.”
