Branding the iPad

Perhaps the most rampant criticisms of the iPad (besides the lack of camera, lack of Flash, lack of e-ink, lack of multi-tasking... did I miss anything?) center around the name. Many reports have claimed women are offended by the name because of its connotation with "sanitary napkins" (a term I've always despised). Personally, I think that's taking the gender barrier a bit too far... but there are a host of funny alternatives floating around out there: iTampon (a thumb-size drive for your iPad) and MaxiPad (either the pink alternative or the larger-disk-space alternative).

The most interesting bit of the debate (in my mind, anyway) is the role MadTV has come to play - after all, they released a skit of two women joking about a device called the "iPad" years before the rumors on an Apple tablet became mainstream.



Really, though, I think Apple a) knew that there would be jokes about the name, b) hoped to get extra publicity out of it (which they have), and c) know that they have the branding power to overcome any connotations with pads-and-tampons, instead making "pad" associated with tablet devices. They did it with iPod, iMac, iBook, etc... they can do it with pad too.Thoughts?