Before Apple plumped for iPhone, Apple considered several other names for its first smartphone. Not only was the name iPad originally in contention for the phone rather than it later being used for the company's tablet, but it also almost went with TriPod. Really.

Speaking during an event at the University of Arizona's Department of Marketing, former Apple advertising honcho Ken Segall revealed several of the names other than iPhone that were thrown about for the Cupertino giant's debut in the mobile phone business.

Apple-centric site 9to5Mac was in attendance, so Segall's revelations have made it out of the lecture. And some are rather surprising.

Along with TriPod - obviously, a bastardisation of iPod, which signified the new device's three main functions of phone, media player and internet browser - the manufacturer considered TelePod - a mash-up of telephone and iPod. Mobi was also on the agenda as a shortened version of mobile - Segall highlighted this one as having character.

Strangely, iPad was touted well before the company had designs on tablet computing in the form it is now. Clearly that one was benched, but not indefinitely.

Apple opted for iPhone in the end, of course, even though its name has caused some trouble for the company over the years. First, Cisco owned the rights to the name iPhone, with the two firms having to come to an agreement. And the Brazilian company Gradiente owns the rights to use the name exclusively in its native land, a fact recently reinforced through the courts.