« Will Apple's Brick Product Code Naming be a Smash Hit? | Main | Is Pink Taco a Good Brand Name? »

September 25, 2008

Has the T-Mobile G1 Brand Name Become a Nightmare?

As you probably already know, the T-Mobile G1 smartphone started out with the code name the Dream.

Seems like the G1 dream has become more of a nightmare in terms of product naming.

The concerns I raised about the G1 name in my earlier post have intensified. It turns out that T-Mobile's new phone limited the bandwidth to 1-GB of data per month.

I then thought to myself, gee, might it be called the G1 because of the 1-GB limit? Maybe so, maybe not, but T-Mobile has rescinded the 1-GB limit, so I wonder if they will now call this phone the G1 Unlimited or the G1 Plus.

It is probably very unlikely that the G1 referred to the 1-GB limit, but I'm also reminded of another reason G1 is such a poor name. The G1 phone runs on the G3 network, which only adds to the aforementioned confusion.

At the risk of sounding self-serving, and I don't mean to be, my guess is that the G1 name was lobbied for by the T-Mobile engineers who worked on it.

Technorati Tags: G1, T-Mobile G1, 1-GB, Product Naming, G3 Network, Google, Dream Phone

Posted by William Lozito at September 25, 2008 5:15 PM
Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Consumer Electronics | Industry | Naming | Product Naming | Retail | Technology | Telecommunications

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.namedevelopment.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4244