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 Maybe so, maybe not, but T-Mobile has rescinded the 1-GB limit, so I wonder if they will now call this phone the G1 Unlimited or the G1 Plus.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 5:15 PM
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September 24, 2008
What do you think of the T-Mobile G1 brand naming?
The new Google phone is out and it has been named the "G1." Well, let me be more precise.
This is a Google-powered phone sold by T-Mobile USA that uses the vaunted Android operating system. It's official name is actually the "T-Mobile G1" leading one blogger to ask "G1, Gphone, Tphone - what will you call your Google phone?"
To confuse matters even further, HTC, the Taiwan based manufacturer of the phone, code-named it the Dream. I've rarely seen a technology device referred to by so many names.
When I first saw the term G1, I immediately thought that this must be for an old product. Why?
I was immediately reminded of:
- Apple's G-Series of Towers which ended in the discontinued G5
- Then there is the Pontiac G5 and G6
- Oh, did I mention that ASUS has a G1 and G2 laptop
- Finally, maybe this is a little bit of a stretch, but I was also reminded of the George Foreman G5 grill
While I agree with New Gadgets and Gizmos that the T-Mobile G1 Phone is not an iPhone killer, I strongly disagree with the assertion that iPhone will become a genericized brand, like Kleenex, Xerox and Band-Aids.
Just as Apple tightly controls third party developer software for the iPhone, it has a track record of vigorously defending its brand trademarks.
Technorati Tags: G1, T-Mobile G1, iPhone, Google, Pontiac, George Foreman, Computers, Cell Phones, Android
Posted by William Lozito at 8:06 AM
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September 2, 2008
A Cloud of Vague Naming Besets Trademark Law
"Trademark [law]," according to the Paul Goldstein, a Stanford law school professor quoted in the New York Times, is the "sleeping giant of intellectual property." This conclusion was made for many reasons, but the one that catches my eye is the quest by companies to seek names for products that simply are not that well defined.
The two examples cited in the article are "Cloud Computing," which Dell unsuccessfully tried to trademark, and "Live Mesh," which Microsoft is currently trying to trademark.
Cloud Computing, an innovative offsite Internet service, is a great name because it speaks to the so-called "computer cloud" (all the devices out there that access the Internet). It's also a term that has been floating around the geek world for some time.
Live Mesh, on the other hand, is a super application that is meant to keep all of your web devices in sync, although it looks like the term Open Mesh is already in use.
It looks to me like tech companies, are discovering that names are being registered faster than ever before, especially after running into trademark issues on products that customers might have a hard time understanding, much less buying. Never mind the difficulty of "dot-whatevers," we're seeing a virtual race to get names into the books before the product development is even finished.
This is nothing new, of course. Companies in more traditional fields are already borrowing from different markets of brand naming to get their own trademarks. For example, "Mango" is a fashion line and there is a "Virgin" cola out there alongside the airline.
Business Line in India asks "Will we soon have motorcars called Sweat and deodorants named Cylinder & Piston?"
Of course we will. Names from different categories is one of the factors that helps keep product and brand naming interesting.
Technorati Tags: Trademark, Cloud Computing, Live Mesh, Open Mesh, Virgin Cola, Mango Fashion Line, Internet Naming, Fashion Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:58 AM
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June 10, 2008
Does Snow Leopard and 3G iPhone Take Apple Product Naming to a New Level?
The World Wide Developers Conference yesterday, appeared to be a good day for Apple, and was especially interesting from a product naming point of view.
To begin with, Mobile Me is now a reality, as I blogged about a few days ago. The less than suitable .Mac is soon to be a thing of the past, thanks in part to the new, less expensive and faster 3G iPhone.
The official name for this smartphone is the iPhone 3G, which is headed to stores on July 11. This ends days of frustration on the blogosphere, when many were wondering if it would be called the 2G, 3G or 2.0. The Crave blog attributes the confusion over what the name would be to the fact that “Apple products are effectively named by the community.“
Crave's blog post was proven right when Steve Jobs seemed to play with the name on stage, referring to it as both the iPhone 2.0, as well as the 3G iPhone.
Now, we understand its official name is the 3G iPhone and if you're interested, you can review the patent.
The next Apple OS X, meanwhile, was unveiled as Snow Leopard, which essentially is just a security and performance update for Leopard.
Some bloggers, quite a few bloggers actually, seem to agree that it’s not the greatest name, mainly because you sound a little funny explaining to people that your computer’s “running snow leopard.” One blogger even wonders if Apple is just running out of cat names to use.
On the other hand, it could be argued that giving product naming to a service pack like this is a nice touch that supports the Leopard name.
Personally, the name Snow Leopard reminds me of Hemingway’s Snows of the Kilimanjaro:
Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and it is said to be the biggest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngáje Ngái," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.
One thing is for sure. The Apple OS X and the iPhone has pushed the company to a whole new altitude.
Technorati Tags: Apple, 3G iPhone, Snow Leopard, Mobile Me, Steve Jobs, OS X, Product Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 9:07 AM
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May 13, 2008
Blackberry Embraces Some Bold New Brand Naming
The news that the new Blackeberry, which up until this weekend was called The Blackberry 9000, is now officially to be named Blackberry Bold, is sure to send CrackBerry.com addicts scurrying to get their new fix. The web mantra for this phone is “Be Bold."
Engadget Mobile is already buzzing, asking if the new gadget has a “Bold new design, bold new flavor?” and jokingly calling it the “Blackberry Clunk”, much to the irritation of some of the people posting on their blog.
The name bold is actually in reference to the display, but Newsblog can’t help mentioning “The bold and the beautiful,” which I suppose is a good thing.
A quick flip through the Blackberry website indicates that this is the Blackberry Bold 9000 (its full name, it seems) is pretty cool, and PC World reminds us that this is designed to take on the iPhone, based on the 3G platform and a higher-res, but smaller screen, though it "holds the same number of pixels as the current iPhone's."
Sub-branding isn't new to Blackberry. The company previously introduced the Blackberry Pearl 8100 Series (marked by its small size, smartphone brains and elegant beauty), followed by the Blackberry Curve 8300 Series (designed with a slightly curved keyboard "For the Well-Rounded Life").
The Bold is a deviation from previous Blackberry naming by using an adjective rather than a a noun.
However, brand names that are adjectives or verbs are not something new to the category. Three notable examples are:
- LG enV - of course, envy can be both a noun or a verb (pictured below left)
- HTC Touch (pictured below middle)
- Samsung Juke (pictured below right)
It also occurs to me that the word bold, unlike curve and pearl, is distinctly masculine. With a tagline like “Be Bold” on a black web splash site, one has to wonder if Blackberry is trying to appeal to men more than women with this one.
The language is also distinctly macho: RIM feels the Blackberry will “Power the passions you pursue.”
Could it be that RIM has decided to take huge inroads into iPhone’s potential male market and let Apple have its fair share of female buyers?
One thing is for sure, it is hard to see some guy buying the Blackberry Bold for his girlfriend, while holding on to his Pearl.
Finally, expect to see more brand names in the cell phone and smartphone categories, as well as more broadly, that are verbs or adjectives. As a society we've pretty much run out of nouns that are available to trademark in many categories.
Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Pearl, LG enV, HTC Touch, Samsung Juke, Cell Phone, Smartphone
Posted by William Lozito at 10:49 AM
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March 3, 2008
Intel Atom: Processor Product Naming for Your PC, Fridge or Mirror
Intel, long known for their confusing naming strategies, has selected the name Atom for its new chip line that could find itself in all kinds of new devices, including many that “haven’t had a serious processor before,” like, say, your refrigerator, toaster or even your bathroom mirror.
The Atom naming replaces the Silverthorne code name and also will be used in the Centrino Atom brand name for those products (mostly mobile Internet devices) that carry only Intel processors.
The name also does away with the Diamondville code name processors for desktops and notebooks.
This naming launch has focused some bloggers on the (pretty vague) difference between notebooks and netbooks. As Tech-Ex says, “Great, more terminology.”
Intel's sub branding nomenclature is doing a nice job of balancing the emphasis of its master brand and new sub brands.
Technorati Tags:Atom, Intel, PC, Silverthorne, Centrino Atom, Diamondville, Naming
Posted by William Lozito at 8:04 AM
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December 7, 2007
Dim Name for a Bright Idea
There are times when a name can fit all your criteria and still be the wrong name for the product or service. Dimdim, a free web meeting tool aiming to compete with the likes of LiveMeeting, WebEx and GoToMeeting, is a prime example. According to founder D. D. Ganguly:
- We sat down with 18,000 domain names and promised ourselves that we would not leave without naming our company. We set 5 simple rules:
- The dotcom domain name must be available
- The name must have high recall
- The name must be international
- The sound of the name must translate without ambiguity to its spelling
- The spelling must translate to unambiguously to its pronunciation
Five hours later we named the company Dimdim.
Eighteen thousand domain names and they picked Dimdim? Sure, it meets all their criteria: it's phonetic and the sounds are common to most languages. It may outdo the Wii in that department.
Like "Wii," "Dimdim" is a name that's just asking to be made fun of. And the Wii, at least, is for gamers. Dimdim is a business service. "Wii" also has Nintendo's marketing budget behind it.
Of course, lots of Web 2.0 products have silly names, and that doesn't stop them from succeeding. But "Flickr," "Twitter," and "Jaiku" all have names that relate to what their service does. Even ooVoo, which scores very high on the silliness scale, looks like "you view."
I can hear the slogans now: "Dim meetings for dim people."
Technorati Tags: Dimdim, Flickr, Wii, Twitter, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Web 2.0, Domain Names
Posted by Diane Prange at 8:57 AM
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