iPod, iMac, iPhone, iPad ... Apple Watch?
Feels like somewhere along the line they decided that naming all their products something with the letter 'i' was silly and dropped it.
That's my theory anyway. Probably wrong lol.
Fashion aware people are mostly wearing traditional watches or go for colorful oversized G-Shocks if they're some celebrity looking to make a bold statement or something.
I recommend 'The Urban Gentry' on Youtube.
But Apple is not necessarily selling to watch aficionados, they are selling (partly) to people who want to be seen as fashionable in a general sense. Calling it "Apple Watch" instead of iWatch, and putting it next to Hermès straps is about adding that gleam of luxury and glamour.
That's funny. I'm not deep into the celebrity/fashion cult, but whenever I see interviews with various celebrities, actors, business people, fashion people, athletes, etc, they always wear some sort of Swiss/Japanese mechanical watch with their fashionable formal or casual attire, never an Apple watch.
Who is considering it a luxury brand? Maybe teenagers on the school playground, or in developing nations where a iWatch costs over a month's average wage (I'm from a developing nation).
But in the west (US, Sweden, etc) it's far from being a luxury brand of any kind. It's just a gadget/tech brand making stuff that almost anyone there can afford. Hardly comparable to something like LVMH.
My guess - the 'I' prefix was tied to the Digital Hub initiative, where software and devices would tie in via your home computer to share music, home movies, photos, etc.
When it became clear that the cloud would replace having all of that maintained on a home computer for most people, adding 'i' as a prefix ended - with iCloud.
With the exception of the iMac, there's also only Mac computers. Really there's only the iMac, iPad and iPhone left with the i prefix.