In iTunesConnect (for those who don't know, iTunesConnect is a website where developers and iBook authors can manage their apps/books), there is this "My Apps" button:
When I change my OS's language to Japanese, it turns into this:
This is quite weird to me because I have never seen "my" translated to just "マイ" before. Is there a reason why they did not use "私の" or "自分の"?
マイ○○ in katakana is very common in this context because we have been familiar with マイコンピュータ and マイドキュメント on the Windows desktop since the Windows 95 era. Using 私の instead doesn't sound cool to me.
On the other hand アップ in katakana is not a good choice because アップ usually means up in Japanese. In katakanized English, up and app are read identically. アプリ is a common abbreviation for アプリケーション, but somehow Apple doesn't seem to like it :)
The first of these マイ words that I recall is マイホーム主義, "my-home-ism", from the 1960s. It referred, often disapprovingly, to the fact that company employees were beginning to give priority to family life over serving their employer. At about the same time, when families were first beginning to acquire cars, マイカー ["my car"], meaning private car, family car, made its appearance. The fact that マイ meant "my" was lost. Reference was frequently made in advertisements to あなたのマイカー.
