http://innocuous.org/ en-us 40 Nothing To See Here comments When <a href="http://apple.com">Apple</a> announced the <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/">MacBook Pro</a>, my first reaction was not to any of the hardware changes but to the name. This machine represents the end of the PowerBook brand name, a brand that dates back well before the PowerPC processor, to <a href="http://www.lowendmac.com/archive/2k0512.html">the first Apple notebook computers in 1991</a>. I believed that PowerBook was one of the strongest brands in the high tech industry, and thought it was remarkably stupid to change it.<br />Yesterday at the <a href="http://www.futurtech.org/">University of Michigan Futuretech conference</a> I got a chance to ask someone from Apple about it. They gave an interesting justification: Apple wants the names of all of their computers to have "Mac" in them. It is important that unsophisticated consumers have a single identifier for all Apple computers. He repeated this justification like it came off a sheet of talking-points. And it does make sense.<br />Which leaves the big question: What are they going to rename iBook to? My guess is we will have MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Maybe we would have seen them already, if not for <a href="http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=1385976">rumored last-minute changes to the keynote.</a><br /> Sat, 28 Jan 2006 19:58:32 EST <a href="/articles/2006/01/28/macbook-pro-killing-the-powerbook-brand">MacBook Pro - Killing the PowerBook Brand</a> <a href="/articles/2006/01/28/macbook-pro-killing-the-powerbook-brand">MacBook Pro - Killing the PowerBook Brand</a>