Intel to drop the “i” moniker in upcoming CPU rebrand

While Intel hasn’t confirmed anything yet, it appears Chipzilla will be dropping it’s iconic “i” CPU branding – and adding a new moniker. The Intel Core Ultra 5 1003H CPU recently made an appearance in the Ashes of the Singularity benchmark: https://www.ashesofthesingularity.com/benchmark#/benchmark-result/4adb4521-b865-40ab-9b11-c8ee987e722f

There’s no indication as to what the “Ultra” moniker means yet. Could this be the successor to Intel’s “Xe Max” graphics moniker? We’ll have to wait until this fall when Intel reveals more information about it’s upcoming next generation chips to find out.

Meanwhile, the reaction to the loss of the “i” moniker has not been received well on Twitter.

Imagine you're losing market share when you've been monopoly for decades, and your bright idea is to burn all brand recognition to the ground!
That's Intel's plan by removing the "i" in i7 i5 i3
All the decades brand recognition being lit on fire for no reason!$INTC $AMD @intel

— Dylan Patel (@dylan522p) April 30, 2023

I concur with Dylan’s assesment here. While Intel is in need of a rebrand – a theoretical Intel i9 19950K would be a mouthful – dropping the “i” in the Core branding seems like a reactionary move by Intel in an attempt to distance themselves from Apple. The “i” branding is extremely powerful with the average consumer and removing it is bound to cause confusion amongst consumers who aren’t technically-inclined.

May 1, 2023 Update – Intel comments!

Today on Twitter, Intel Director Bernard Fernandes confirmed that changes are coming to Intel’s branding. (Hat tip : Videocardz)

Yes, we are making brand changes as we’re at an inflection point in our client roadmap in preparation for the upcoming launch of our #MeteorLake processors. We will provide more details regarding these exciting changes in the coming weeks! #Intel

— Bernard Fernandes (@Bernard_P) May 1, 2023