What does the "i" mean after a mobile model number?

chanticleer

It really means nothing at all.

Well, that's not strictly true. It's a psychological ploy on behalf of the phone manufacturer to key into a big marketing trend - the rise of Apple. Since the huge popularity of the iBook, iMac, iSight, iPod and iPhone, lots of other tech-industry companies started banging a lower-case i onto their product names to shine in Apple's reflected glow.

It's pretty stupid but companies like Sony Ericsson hope you'll walk into a shop knowing that iPods/iPhones/iMacs are good products and pick up their product because of the use of the i. There's some stats kicking around somewhere which shows that 'i'-named phones do sell more than their un-'i'-ed counterparts which might go some way to suggesting that this is true.

My advice? Disregard what a phone is called and buy it for its features instead.

Whitewillow_2

I agree with chanticleer - the 'i' is a marketing point, its the same model (basically) but they have changed the colour/added a new feature or whatever and released it at a slighter later date or released it soley with one provider or whatever it can mean everything and nothing all at the same time!

mcroodi

Thanks for all the replies. :-)

Inactive

On some Samsung models the " i " means that it is only dual band, the similar model without the " i " is a tri band.

GSXRCarlos

so what about the 3310i taht came out before apple made it big?

it's normally an updated version of the previous phone

Esqui

My N93i is a redesigned, updated version of the N93. It had a joystick, a mirror finish and a memory card slot cover that didn't come out so easily.

chanticleer

GSXRCarlos wrote: »

so what about the 3310i taht came out before apple made it big?

I can't find the release date for the 3310i, but the 3310 came out in 2000. The iMac was released in 1998.

ultrak3wl

I used to tell people I had a Ford Escort XRi... if they said hang on that's a dodgy old base model I used to inform them it was Xtremely Rusty indeed

GSXRCarlos

chanticleer wrote: »

I can't find the release date for the 3310i, but the 3310 came out in 2000. The iMac was released in 1998.

Thanks for that, i know apple have been making iMacs for a long time, that's why i said "made it big"