Naming Rant (Again!) – Engadget cracks down on the crappy gadget names, says Lumia is a good start for Nokia
I love a good rant about product names. In particular, my favourite thing to rant about has been Nokia product names – especially since it’s something Nokia just doesn’t get. I got an opportunity to rant again about this since Engadget brought up the topic, discussing all the dreadful product names, as well as some of the good ones.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/11/editorial-the-problem-with-bad-product-names-and-what-we-can-le
When Nokia announced they were going with just numbers, my first reaction was, “why not both names and numbers?” feeling a number only would be just not memorable at all. (Actually it may have been, wtf, why?).
As always, I posted back to one of my early rants (in 2009, 3 years ago 
) on the importance of a good product name – at least for the flagship.
http://mynokiablog.com/2009/12/21/video-nokia-zero-why-the-next-flagship-needs-a-proper-name/
Here was the four main points I talked about:
1. Name needs to be iconic, simple to remember
The name is essential as a “storage” for that product’s reputation….
Person 1: “Oh, wow, that’s a brilliant phone, what’s it called?”
You: “This is the N920-1TB-12MP”
Person 1: “The what?!”
…as well as making it easier for purchasing…
Customer: “Hi, hello, I’d like to buy the um…I think it’s called the N9 something…Nokia N920″
Sales Team: “There’s no N920. Do you mean the N90, N91, N92, N93, N95, N96, N97, N79? 9700?…”
Customer: “Erm…*hangs up*”
…and setting it apart to compete with other manufacturers.
2. Helps if there’s an actual reasoning behind the name, e.g. a theme
This helps with advertising by being able to reinforce the identity of the product with imagery related to the name.
e.g. Droid – Android powered – Robotic/Powerful/Technological etc [vs Milestone - wtf]
Names (vs numbers) and names with meaning evoke memories and emotional responses better towards your product.
3. Syllable count matters
Although they may only be 3/4 characters long, e.g. N97, N900, 6303, consider the syllable count
N97: EN – Nine – Ty – Se-ven [5]
N900 – EN – Nine – Hun – Dred [4]
6303 – Six – ty – three – oh – three [5]
I can understand having these practical numerical designations for lower end handsets, but not mid, and quite inexcusable for the high end.
More syllables means more margin for error and confusion.
[Note also that now Nokia are going to focus on less quantity/more quality handsets, it's now much more feasible to use names and not codes numbers!]
4. Try and keep that name across future handsets
Once you’ve built a good reputation with that handset, you’re gonna want to take advantage of that for its successor.
Over time the handset’s name will be an indicator of its pedigree.
As the success of the previous model is already etched in people’s minds, having that same name makes the transtition to the successor much easier. Better for brand loyalty (as people know what they’ll be getting) and better to entice other consumers (as the each new handset in line contributes to that renowned heritage)
Keep the name, and you accumulate each new strength of the successor. The name becomes a phrase that’s part of society and every day living.
Lose the name and you lose the history.
—
Prime example across the board is iPhone. Simple, two syllable “iGoodness”.
Because apple have kept the same moniker despite there being 3 different models across several memory/colour variants, iPhone steadily but surely solidified its reputation as a world class gadget. With each new model it simply just added onto the known success and hype whilst gradually ironing out flaws.
All in all, the name is very important. You can’t just give phones stupid freaking names like the HTC Chorizo and the Samsung Evacuate. Both of those are made up, but they could be real products since both of those companies play the game of throw darts into a dictionary.
Engadget says the N9 is good in simplicity, but nothing really more than differentiators. They also discuss all the stupid phone names from the Droid makes, asking can you name who the manufacturer is behind, “ Rezound. Rhyme. Vivid. Epic. Sensation. Thrill. Skyrocket. Conquer. Triumph. Enlighten. Infuse. Prevail. Arrive. ” Really, WTF?
Engadget reckon the names actually aren’t bad but are just noise. Donald speaks words that chime with what we’ve ranted about.
- “A product’s name is part of its identity.”
He gives an example that we gave above of the iPhone, how the identity/brand adds to the next version, accumulating all that recognition and reputation. Every time Nokia has changed the name of it’s millions of products, the identity is LOST. It helped a lot that the product was unquestionably, well, good (and that they only really make ONE). But as Donald points out, the consistent naming makes it clear what the Apple smartphone is. Call it envy, but there’s just some frustration each time Apple pulls the “fastest iPhone, most amazing iPhone, best iPhone etc etc” as it’s getting to a point that when people think of smartphones – it’s an iPhone, and they can push the hyperbole on their own brand (which is safe, safer than claiming it’s the best phone though near enough).
On that point of course, the name, as Engadget says, is only part of the equation. You have to have a great product too. They say Nokia was once in the category of Leica or MBW where they had some great names with great products (Nseries – the early generation, N95, N95 8GB) but note that Nokia has faltered. (Annoyingly the stupidly named droids aren’t actually all crappy phones).
Fortunately they say that starting over with Windows Phone, “LUMIA” is “a pretty good start”. Say what you want about Nokia Windows Phone, allegiances aside, it is a good product for the end consumer. Let’s make it clear that saying X is good does not mean you can assume I mean that Y is bad.
Lumia is a good start. Rhymes with Nokia, quirky, memorable, short. If all of Nokia’s Windows Phone uses this name, it would be a great new brand identity for Nokia – light at the end of the bleak tunnel when Nseries dimmed. However, I also fear Nokia will fall for the same mistake of releasing too many handsets, some of which may be dreadfully crap, that dilute and harm the Lumia brand.
Should Nokia 900 also be Lumia? Or should 900 have a name of its own? That is the real Nokia Windows Phone that should be compared to the flagships of other manufacturers. Can it carry a new brand of its own and leave Lumia for a different audience?
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and Facebook.com/mynokiablog. Check out the tips, guides and rules for commenting >>click<< Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
yep elop fucked up like always…..they where all fine as letter and number series
NSeries PREMIUM
ESeries BUSINESS
CSeries Classic
XSeries Music
1000 – 5000Series S40 Feature/Pocket effordable
Actually in the world of convergence, the splitting up thing wasn’t working.
Why should Eseries have to have shitty cameras? Why can’t Nseries have decent keyboards? Why must Nseries be diluted to a craptastic meaningless pieces of crap because OPK overproduced shitstorm devices? What on earth are Cseries devices? Does the public even understand the branding of these different series? (Also Eseries, Xseries means nothing. Eseries stuff like E72 were basically called a Nokia blackberry)
Name and number was good, but then they had X5 and another X5 in the same space and time but were totally different phones! WTF! C3? C3 QWERTY and C3 touch and type?! WTF! Selling at the same store?! That is most clear the the consumer.
I completely agree. Kallasvuo released a lot old phones with the same appearance (N78, N79, N81, N82, N85, N86, N96, N97) but difference form factor. I can’t even tell what’s the difference in terms of features and specs. And they’re all fingerprint-magnets!
The company also failed miserably to upgrade and update Symbian’s software. They became too comfortable about their position in the market, thinking that their success is not going anywhere. They also have underestimated touchscreens without knowing that it’s going to give them a huge kick in the ass.
About your rant, I guess Nokia’s trying to minimize the costs, as to make the phones more accessible to many and relatively cheap.
They could have just released C3 and name the other one C4. Instead of creating different variants, with the same name. And their marketing is poor: the ads for example of the Nokia C6-01 only displays the model number as “Nokia C6.” What the hell, that was the predecessor, the Symbian^1 device. And we’re already talking about the new Symbian^3 device. Something like that. Or maybe if they want to create that kind of naming convention, with the hyphen and shit like that, I guess they should have give the phones more time “to breathe” before introducing the other one.
i honestly found it easier to name ……Nseries in general was premium and
or more fuller with Media
i’ve had the
6270
E70
5800
N76
5
i honestly found it easier to name ……Nseries in general was premium and
or more fuller with Media
i’ve had the
6270(standard slide)
E70(flip business)
XM5800(music)
N76(media)
5230(affrdable touch symbian)
656?(cheap flip)
N900(MicroComputer Tablet/Smartphone Hybrid)Media
N8 – 00 (full Media)
not hard to rememebr since they already are classed and presented …….samsung it doing the same thing Nokia did making different classes for their phones….
the fool who made the change names again just fucked things up again for the Model Numbers and the Structure(Model House)
Also, when S60 3rd Edition FP2 was released, they were still manufacturing devices based on FP1, even about two years later.
The same thing happened when they released Symbian^1. They’re still releasing S60 3rd Edition FP1 and FP2 phones.
And also, when they released Symbian^3, the others like C5-03 and E5 contains Symbian^1 and S60 3rd Edition FP2 respectively. I don’t get the strategy.
Well at least now, they’re way cleaner.
they made models for the wrong series for some of them but the Numbers Plus Series Letter make more sense what Elop changed the names too cause
701,700,710
103……like WTF is a 710
C7-10(lumina)//…..?
C7-01(symbian)…..???
C7-00( already done
The number is just a relative placement on Nokia’s ladder. It’s how high end they perceive it to be, nothing more.
The name tells you what OS it runs, the number tells you if it’s supposed to be low end or high end.
100s are for S30
200s-400s are for S40
500s-700s are for Symbian
700s-900s are for Windows Phone
Basically, forget about what the number means and just remember bigger is better, and it’s a way to differentiate devices when you’re searching for info on them or getting support.
Although I still prefer the old naming convention no matter how confusing it might be, I think starting Asha and Lumia is a good indicator that Nokia is “moving forward.”
The leaked Nokia 900 should carry the Lumia brand, as it is essentially their flagship series and we all know that the upcoming phone will turn out that way. So far, the 710 and the 800 are doing a pretty good job establishing the reputation of Windows Phone, and re-enlightening the fortunes of Nokia and Microsoft.
The bottomline is, if 900 is going to continue the innovation and “light” that the 800 and 710 is currently giving to the company, then it should have the Lumia name. Otherwise (if it will be like the “flagship” N97 that damaged the reputation of the Nseries, Symbian and Nokia), then they better just keep it boring: the 900.
I agree about watering down the name with too many offerings. The 710 for example does not seem like it should be part of the Lumia family.
I think the Nokia Lumia 710 deserves to be there. It’s really a good-looking device and it performs just as good as the Nokia 800. It only lags in the camera front. But other than that, I think it’s worth getting.
The Lumia family is the Nokia Windows Phone family. If it runs Windows Phone, it’s a Lumia. Simple as that. Anything more complex is the stupidity we had before.
Sorry to say, but not all Windows Phones will be getting the Lumia branding.
We can still hope that they’ll change their mind about using a different name in North America. If Lumia catches on well enough, they’ll go ahead and call it Lumia here too.
I don’t know if it is good place to bring this up for an example but I think it will make a good naming example.
Sony Ericsson brings Xperia lineup, now they have a brand Xperia and the extension names or numbers or both. Such as X10, or Xperia X5 that was Xperia Pure (I think) or Now Xperia Arc and Pro and so forth.
I think the problem with Nokia, HTC, Samsung in naming is due to many many devices and things get crazy. N8, N9, E7, E72, all these type of names are easy and their series are still Iconic. Like Deep Space Bar said above in first comment.
However I have to agree with Jay too (in DSB’s answer) Why not all in one? Why E7 can’t have N8′s camera and XM’s sound setup? Just bring one of those devices and it will pay them off.
There will always be market for other devices as people pickup handsets that suits them. If I want a smaller mobile I will never go with N8 nor E7 no mater how good they are (just an example)
So back to naming, what they should do is to give a NAME along with the number to their FLAGSHIPs only, IF the numbers are not small or easy.
The followers of that device go by the numbers, simple.
If 900 is the Flagship, it has a name Lumia. The rest 700, 710 600 or whatever is fine.
Good example within Nokia is their Asha Series.
Business phones aren’t suppose to be jacked up like the MultiMedia phones….it makes no sense
Yes, that’s true. But who says it should just be for business?
The iPhone is ONE phone yet it is somehow flexible enough to cater for businesses.
I’m not saying Nokia should just make ONE phone.
Nokia needs to make one INCREDIBLE Cook punching flagship and THEN perhaps begin to start thinking possibly about dedicated or ‘fragmented’ spin-offs.
The market is growing wise to their needs. All they see is iPhone carrying “everything”. Nokias having X but missing Y.
that’s true but no makes phones for everyone from premium to pocket affordable
so making one phone would screw up the series to differentiate each model
plus with apple is ….you buy our phone or fuck you….
and nokia does want to put that image or mindset in peoples heads
So basically the lumia name ia nokias windows phone line just as the galaxy is ssamsungs android line, and I like it as long as they stick to it and not flip out halfway through.
pretty much, yeah.
lumia for windows phone, asha for s40…. i guess they’re not bothering giving symbian phones a name. hah
Seriously. Just stick with one name. No need to differentiate it. I mean just look at the Apple Macbook Pro and Alienware’s laptops. They never made any huge changes. The only thing that differentiates the (almost) similar names were the dates of release. Nokia, just stick with one damned name. When you release a new one, people will just know it through a monthly revision of that product.