What will the "Macintel" systems be named when they ship?

On June 20, 2005, EveryMac.com published:

It's extremely early to speculate on naming choices, as it's doubtful that Apple has even decided on final naming, but it's unlikely that they will be called "Macintel" systems. The same day as the announcement, Apple filed a trademark for the term "Mactel", but it seems likely that this is a protective registration to prevent the name from becoming used by a competitor, rather than a name that Apple intends to use for a shipping product.

If history is any indication, Apple tends to name "professional" product lines beginning with "Power", such the "PowerBook", which was named long before the introduction of the PowerPC processor, and the "Power Macintosh", which was named to coincide with the introduction of the PowerPC processor. Apple has given "consumer" product lines, in recent history, lower case prefixes of "i" or "e", such as iMac, eMac, and iBook with little, if any, emphasis on processor type or speed.

If Apple continues to follow these naming conventions, which they may or may not, one could make a somewhat educated guess that the Mac mini, iMac, and iBook would continue to have the same names regardless of processor type and the "professional" models could become the "Power Macintosh M" and "PowerBook M" if Apple decided to name them after the "Pentium M" processor. However, as "M" stands for "Mobile" this could lead to some confusion particularly with the Power Macintosh series. Or Apple could decide to give the professional models a new name altogether.

On January 16, 2006, EveryMac.com noted:

With the release of the first Intel-based Macs, Apple has decided to keep the iMac name, as speculated earlier, and change the PowerBook name to "MacBook Pro", which largely has been panned by armchair critics.

On April 4, 2006, EveryMac.com added:

Apple has decided to keep the Mac mini name for the Intel-based models.

Nevertheless, even with several final naming decisions, speculating on the naming for remaining systems becomes no easier. If Apple wants to place greater emphasis on the "Mac" brand, it will be interesting to see if an Intel-based consumer-targeted laptop is released as the "iBook" or if it is changed to "MacBook", "MacBook mini", "MacBook nano", or something entirely different.

Apple decided to discontinue the iBook name and replace it with MacBook for the consumer-targeted notebooks. On January 30, 2006, Apple reportedly filed for a trademark of "Mac Pro", and it remains to be seen if this name will be used for professional systems, as is widely expected, or if it just is a protective filing like "Mactel".

With all speculation, only time will tell.

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