What Makes Apples So Special in the IT World (on the Origin of Some Very Popular Brands)?

Posted on March 25, 2007
Filed Under Humor

To be honest, Ia��ve asked myself many times why the fruit of the fruits a�� the apple, has been chosen to become a world-known brand in the IT business. Probably the vitamins that it contains are a good reason? Or the alluring nature of those first existing apples that made Adam commit the original sin? Somehow I don’t see any logic in here. Anyway, the shamefully simple answer remained a mystery to me until a day ago when I stumbled upon some very intriguing info about how some exclusively popular brands in the IT business have been born. Getting curious? Read it on.

Apple Apples were indeed Steve Jobsa�� favorite fruit. Hea��d been lagging behind with the idea of his companya��s name for more than three months and warned to call it Apple Computers if no one suggested anything else by 5 pm. Obviously, no helpful ideas have emerged.

CISCO Most people believe it to be an acronym but it is no more than an abbreviation of San Francisco.

Compaq A two-word compilation a�� Com a�� standing for a computer and PAQ meaning a small integral object.

Corel The name of the world popular graphic design soft originates from the name of its founder Dr. Michael Cowpland and his research lab.

Google It all started as a joke: those young and enthusiastic students of Stanford Sergei Brin and Larry Paige used the name Googol to show a digit followed by 100 nulls. They wanted to tell investors: a�?See what a mass of info our search engine operates with.a�? Their first check the couple received was addressed to a�?Googlea�?.

Hotmail Its founder Jack Smith got a wonderful idea a�� to create an e-mail box accessible from every single point in the world. When Sabir Bhatia presented a business plan of this service, he had many possible names to offer. In the end, he fell in love with a�?hotmaila�? for it contained the letters a�?htmla�? and, logically, the first version of the name was a�?HoTMaiLa�?. Later on it was altered to that name Hotmail we all know.

Hewlett-Packard Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard worried about which name of their company would sound more attractive a�� Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. They tossed for it a�� Hewlett-Packard won.

Intel Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their newborn company a�?Moore Noycea�? but a hotel range had already taken the brand so they fixed on an acronym of the words Integrated Electronics.

Microsoft A name created on the spur of the moment by Bill Gates, who wanted to present his company that specialized in the production of microcomputer software. In those first days the company was gaining popularity as Micro-Soft but soon the hyphen was deleted.

Sony The origins of this brand lay in the Latin word a�?sonusa�? which means a�?sounda�? and the slang word a�?sonnya�? standing for a smart guy.

Yahoo For the first time Yahoo was coined by Jonathan Swift in his book a�?Gullivera��s travelsa�?. The typical a�?Yahooa�? was a person with repelling look and actions. The fathers of Yahoo! Jerry Young and David Filo pitched on this name because they believed to be nothing else but pure yahoos.

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