How funny that speech and language difficulties can even be involved in the naming of Apple’s new release, the iPad Tablet. According to the New York Times yesterday, in their article, “iPad Name Conjures Up More Than Intended,” the pronunciation of the /a/ sound in the iPad is too similar to the /o./ in iPod for people from Boston to Ireland to easily hear a distinction. Who didn’t check that out??? A good speech pathologist trained in foreign dialect could have advised Apple on the confusion.
The language piece that gets confusing is, that according to the article, some women are upset because of the awkward association between the name and feminine products. Naming consultants get paid a lot of money to come up with names that conjure up just the right associations. In this case, who would have thought?
Anyways, I think the iPad is a cool product and as soon as I get to know my precious iphone a little better, I will be ready to take on the iPad, controversy or not.
