i-how can one letter mean so much?

This week, I read an article on BBC about "i".

The summary is as follows:

It started over a decade ago with Apple's iMac and caught the imagination of a generation through the iPod, spawning a whole family of products.

Today, the name of many products and service has "i", for instance, the iTeddy and iDog.

By 2008, the BBC's iPlayer had adopted the same snappy title form - even its developmental name of Integrated Media Player was shortened to iMP - and last year "i" was chosen by Magazine readers as one of 20 words which defined the last decade.

Its promotional blurb gives a few clues as to the reasoning behind the choice, peppered as it is with words like intelligent, incisive, interesting, influential and ideas.

"It's about the power of people. Them saying 'I want this; I want that. You're going to give me what I want on my terms'," says the head of marketing company Brand Forensics. Today's use of the letter "i" is much more sophisticated than early attempts to jump on the "cool" bandwagon, says Mr Gabay."Brands are doing everything to say 'you're in charge'. It gives products more credibility," he adds.But "i" works best because its meaning has become "completely ambiguous", he says. Whereas with iMac it stood primarily for "internet", the iPod - and many products since - have left customers guessing as to whether it might be internet, information, individual or interactive, argues Mr Thorne. "Even when Apple originated the iPod, it seems it didn't have one precise denotation. iPod had already been patented as the name of an information kiosk," he says.

When I read this news, the social network service "mixi" occurred to me. Searching the origin, the word "mixi" is made by the developer and taken apart for two, "mix" and "i". According to the official site, "mix" means to communicate and "i" means people. This may be influenced by the trend of "i".

By the way, this is the last class of electronic print media. In October, I didn't know how to read newspaper, choose interesting articles, and make use of electronic print media. However, now I can read news on internet freely and mention my opinion better than before. Also, thanks to this class, I can communicate with people in different faculty and people who are different age. This is a good opportunity for me to know many things. For example, I learned about Chinese culture. Now, I am interested in China and sometimes read news about China harder than before. In addition to that, Takashi, who is 4th grade in the department of science always told interesting story about physics. For example, there are aliens in the universe! If I had not taken this class, I couldn't have be interested that kinds of news. Thank you for exiting class, Mr.Jaques!

Adam Lucas. "i-how can one mean so much?"

BBC 26 Oct. 2010: n.pag. Web. 19 Jan.2011.