iMac could have been called Rocket Mac, former Apple insider says
The name Rocket Mac was an early suggestion for the first generation iMac, the personal computer that kicked off Apple’s recovery, following the 1997 re-instatement of Steve Jobs, according to Ken Segall, a former Apple insider and advertising executive.
He also revealed that, based on these initial ideas, today’s most iconic Apple devices could also have been named the Phone Man or Pod Man. Credited with coming up with the name iMac, a combination of the words Internet and Macintosh, Mr. Segall also signalled that, with the introduction of new products such as Apple Pay and Apple Watch, it appeared that the era of the “i” was coming to an end at Apple.
He made these comments at a recent presentation for university students, organised by SLASSCOM, at the Virtusa auditorium at Orion City, in Colombo, where he also opined that Apple should have introduced a bigger screen iPhone two years before they actually did.
A former Apple insider who had worked at the company as recently as 2008, Mr. Segall was initially introduced to Mr. Jobs during his time at NEXT, following his 1985 ousting from Apple. Of his time with Mr. Jobs at NEXT, he commented that, while Mr. Jobs was the same savvy salesman that he was before, there was no “magic” such as during his time at Apple.
He also noted that, due to Mr. Jobs, Apple went from 90 days to bankruptcy in 1997, to one of the most valuable companies in the world in just 14 years. This dramatic turn of events was attributed to an obsession with simplicity directly attributed to Mr. Jobs.
According to Mr. Segall, Mr. Jobs made all design decisions centrally, hiring the best people to do the job and not micro-managing these tasks, nor did he use focus group testing, etc. However, there were also no qualms about firing people, if they did not perform. Additionally, Mr. Jobs was not a big believer in the need for localising a product or advertising campaign.