3GS? 3G S? 3G-box-S? Make up your mind!
You’d think that by now, most companies would understand that it’s a consumer’s world, and being normal folk, we like things clean and simple — starting with the names of the products we buy. I will be the first to admit that it is getting better. Slowly. Now we have Pre, Slingbox, even Zune (though it hurts to utter the word) that give us a name we can hang onto. But then there’s always the Samsung HT-BD7200 to bring us back down to earth (no kidding, it was one of the “best in show” at CES this year). And every so often, a company that really knows better gets caught up in its own nomenclature. Just so you don’t think I’m an unrelenting Apple apologist, take a look at what they’ve done with the new iPhone 3GS. Or is it the iPhone 3G S. Or the iPhone 3G S-in-a-box. Hard to tell even by reading Apple’s own website. See Exhibit A above: they can’t even get it straight between headline and copy.
What surprised me about this is that Apple normally employs terrific common sense about such things. When the super-thin iPod nano radically changed to the “fat” iPod nano a couple of years ago, the new name was: iPod nano. And when it dramatically changed form yet again last year, the new name was: iPod nano. Apple has always believed it’s kind of like buying a car. Every year, Audi makes a different A4, but it’s always called the Audi A4. We’re all smart enough to figure out that when we go to the showroom, we’ll get the newest model. This logic does fly in the face of some stone-etched laws of retailing, but Apple has never cared much for those laws. Of course there are times when the new product has a distinguishing feature that really sets it apart or would add some great value if it were to appear in the name — like iPod touch. That’s nice and easy. So why the S on top of the 3G? Apple says it stands for “speed” — which, strangely, has not been a big part of the advertising, and I doubt that more than a small handful of people will ever make the connection. But I suspect people would get it in a nanosecond if it were called it the iPhone video — since that feature opens up an incredibly huge new world to iPhone users. Somehow, I think we’d all have quickly “gotten it” if Apple told me that the newest iPhone was also the fastest. And we wouldn’t be left to decipher meaningless letters and numbers in a decidedly non-Apple way.
You might say I’m splitting hairs here. And I certainly am, in the sense that when your product is white-hot and the industry’s #1 object of lust, it’s hardly an issue. But principles are principles, and even the master of product naming can stumble from time to time. Fortunately, it’s easy to forgive a company that does so much cool and smart stuff, which only goes to prove the power of a great brand. You get a hell of a lot more leeway as long as you keep making us happy.
