What’s in a Name? The Madness in Smartphone Nomenclature

[Top100EbooksRank]

http://thetecnica.com/2012/09/madnes...artphone-names

Nokia, HTC and Sony name their smartphones with pointless alphabets which do not carry any specific meaning to differentiate themselves. Just notice the names such as ‘Xperia S’, ‘Xperia T’, ‘Xperia J’, ‘Xperia V’, ‘One X’, ‘One S’ and ‘One V’. Aren’t they confusing and do they mean anything actually? These companies need to change this naming strategy to something that can be understood and has some understandable meaning. HTC specifically had mentioned that they will “focus on more powerful hardware and exciting software with ‘One’ brand in 2012″ but still they are hanging around with their Desire brand launching entry level and mid-level models under its belt.

How It Can Be Changed?

With Smartphones and cell phones in general becoming commodities, mobile manufacturers might benefit from taking the FMCG/ route. Coca Cola, HUL and P&G have successfully created 1000s of sub brands without having to resort to abbreviations and repetitive naming. While the argument here might be that cell phones unlike FMCG products need higher Consumer involvement in making choices, the actual naming seldom makes or breaks the purchasing decision. Considering the sheer number of products being launched by the smartphone manufacturer, it may be wise to have at least 5 Marquee brands per Manufacturer.

example of too many names and confusing consumers:

htc one x
htc one s
htc one v

motorola raz
motorola razr m
motorola maxx
motorola maxx hd

and this is happening with android tablets too...


why not just stick with a name and put a number after it for newer version? (galaxy s2 -> galaxy s3, iphone3 ->iphone4 ->iphone5)

find another name for their mid-range phone stick with that name. Flagship names should not be tainted (i'm looking at you Samsung).


google should do the same too for their 3 flagship devices

my suggestions:

nexus 4
nexus 4.2
nexus 4.3
nexus 4.4 and so on

(if they make a phone that is at least 5.0", name it nexus 5, nexus 5.2 and so on)

nexus 7
nexus 7.2
nexus 7.3
nexus 7.4

nexus 10
nexus 10.2
nexus 10.3
nexus 10.4

etc....

What will Amazon do with its Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD line?

Kindle Fire HD 2
Kindle Fire HD 3
Kindle Fire HD 4?

something like that?


Apple simple brand name is easy for consumers to understand

iphone4
iphone4s
iphone5

ipad
ipad 2
ipad 3 (wtf with "new ipad")
ipad 4

ipad mini
ipad mini 2
ipad mini 3
ipad mini 4




http://mashable.com/2012/02/12/snl-smartphone-spoof/
SNL Spoofs Confusing Smartphone Marketing

the Video is in the link and it is pretty funny.

[SeaKing]

Man, you just don't understand.

There are marketing types making big bucks coming up with these names.
Good for the economy!

[Kali Yuga]

I concur with Top100, names for most electronics are a complete mess.

Apple isn't perfect either. You have the model in increments, except when you don't (e.g. 4S), and you also have the iOS in increments. Lots of devices don't have iteration names, so it can be difficult for non-techies to know what type of Macbook they own.

[Crowl]

The reasoning behind the HTC stuff is to give them a single brand to promote in the form of HTC One, whereas until they made that change they had a wide variety of device names and brands that they had to try and promote on a budget far less than the main rival in the android market which is samsung.

[DrNefario]

My day job has involved phones and smartphones for several years. It's never made any sense. I wonder if it's intentionally confusing.

Manufacturers often use a meaningless jumble of numbers and letters because they selling in many different territories with different languages. See also cars.

I know that Nokia have reused the same 4-digit model number for completely different generations of phones, which is just unhelpful to everyone, really. They must have had some old boxes to reuse, or something.

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by Crowl

The reasoning behind the HTC stuff is to give them a single brand to promote in the form of HTC One, whereas until they made that change they had a wide variety of device names and brands that they had to try and promote on a budget far less than the main rival in the android market which is samsung.

Samsung actually has sub brands: Galaxy Pocket, Mini, Ace, S#, and then other experiments like Beam, S3 mini... of course, Samsung is freaking huge.

[Pinecone]

No different than other products.

Look at car naming.

[VaultBoy]

I was just going to make mention of some auto makers and their odd alphanumeric car names. Those things confuse me more than phone names anymore.

[Top100EbooksRank]

instead of

nexus 4
nexus 4.2
nexus 4.3
nexus 4.4 and so on

would this work better?

Nexus 4
Nexus 4B
Nexus 4C
Nexus 4D
Nexus 4E

Nexus 5
Nexus 5B
Nexus 5C

TV models for Samsung goes like this

C450
D450
E450

F450 will come out pretty soon I think