Apple’s Phil Schiller is now giving free grammar lessons via Twitter. Yesterday afternoon he explained to Twitter users the proper way to pluralize Apple product names. Here’s a hint, don’t put an “s” on the end of an Apple product names, such as when you’re discussing iPads or iPhones. (Whoops! Our bad!)
Schiller’s instructions came after a discussion on pluralizing “iPad Pro” between Andreessen Horowitz partner Benedict Evans and iMore analyst Michael Gartenberg. Evans referred to more than one iPad Pro as “iPads Pro,” while Gartenberg said “iPad Pros.”
Schiller told both that neither party was correct, and the proper way to refer to more than one iPad Pro is to call them, ‘iPad Pro devices.” He went on to say plural Macintoshs (macintoshi?) should be referred to as “I have 3 Macintosh,” or “I have 4 Macintosh computers.”
“Words can be both singular and plural, such as deer and clothes,” he explained. So, take note journalists of the world.
https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/725791354769399808
Apple however, in a “do as I say, not as I do” fit of guidance, sometimes breaks its own (or Schiller’s) grammar rules. As Business Insider points out, in a number of press releases, Apple refers to “iPhones” when using the plural.
One can only wonder if this is a hot topics in the executive lunchroom at Apple as the executives, um, the executive members, sit down to lunch.
