‘Please can I have the Wi-Fi password?’ is likely a question you’ve asked many times while out and about – but have you ever paused to wonder what Wi-Fi actually means?...CONTINUE READING
We use it every single day in one way or another – whether it’s in the office to connect our laptops, or to browse social media on our phones from our sofas. But it turns out that people really have the wrong end of the stick when it comes to the meaning of Wi-Fi.
Despite popular opinion and rumours, Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything at all, as revealed by an expert who was involved in the naming process back in the 1990s.
Phil Belanger, who is among the founding members of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, now best known as the Wi-Fi Alliance, has explained that “Wi-Fi” was just one of 10 names proposed by Interbrand, the world-leading brand agency hired by the alliance to think up a name and logo.
A number of people believe Wi-Fi stands for “wireless fidelity” – much like how Hi-Fi stands for “high fidelity”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth at all, with the name actually having “no meaning” whatsoever.
In an interview with Boing Boing, Belanger stated that Wi-Fi is “not an acronym”, delving into the marketing-related reasons it was actually chosen.
Belanger explained: “We needed something that was a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence’. Interbrand created ‘Prozac’, ‘Compaq’, ‘Oneworld’, ‘Imation’, and many other brand names that you have heard of. They even created the company name ‘Vivato’.”
He added: “The only reason that you hear anything about ‘Wireless Fidelity’ is some of my colleagues in the group were afraid. They didn’t understand branding or marketing.
They could not imagine using the name ‘Wi-Fi’ without having some sort of literal explanation. So we compromised and agreed to include the tagline ‘The Standard for Wireless Fidelity’ along with the name. This was a mistake and only served to confuse people and dilute the brand.”
Once Wi-Fi boomed in popularity, the by-then very successful alliance dropped the tagline, which Belanger regards as “a clumsy attempt to find two words that could go with ‘Wi-Fi’.” He added that Wi-Fi could “never be a standard”, rendering the tagline meaningless.
Belanger reflected: “So we were smart to hire Interbrand to come up with the name and logo. We were dumb to confuse and water down their efforts by adding the meaningless tagline. Please help reinforce the good work that we did and forget the tagline…CONTINUE READING>>
