On Tuesday, Steve Jobs introduced the new Apple iPhone product. Wow! This thing looks amazing. I hope Motorola, Nokia, and the rest will see the power of great design. Maybe this product will show them that software shouldn't be an afterthought but a key element of the design.

But the name. iPhone? Ugh. It's not meaningful nor is it trademarkable. Well, I guess it is trademarkable except Apple doesn't own the trademark, Cisco does. It's perhaps a clever name for Cisco's VoIP phone, invoking as it does the idea of an internet phone. Yet as far as I can tell, Cisco doesn't own the URL; some company called Nuvio does (or is that really a Cisco company? I dunno). Didn't Apple learn anything from their 20-year battle with The Beatles?

Either way it's a dumb name for Apple. Isn't the whole 'i' thing over already? iPod, iTunes, iLife, iWork, iWhatever. Yeesh.

I want this product but I hate the name. Is the iPhone name a monument to Steve's ego or was it a project code name that went awry. Since it won't ship until mid-year, I'm hoping the product managers can convince Apple to use a good name when they actually deliver the product.