Valhalla Island

What’s the difference between an E65i, N93, 8300, X830 or a D520? Unless you own the phone or you’re an Engadget Mobile subscriber, you can’t associate the name to the phone or even to a brand of phone. Dell names their computers in groups but then gives different configurations code style names like E520, Apple gives them one name and ignores configurations.

It confuses people and encourages disinterest. I don’t even know the model number of my own Nokia phone so whenever it comes up in conversation and I don’t have it, it’s almost impossible to spread the word about it. Not that I want to, my phone sucks and I’d have to sift through all the phone pictures on Nokia’s website to warn you away from it.

Luxury cars do the same thing. We know the difference between a 3 series and a 7 series but the difference between a 3181i and a 3212i isn’t so obvious, even if we’ve seen the car and read the attached badge.

If you’re going to give your products code names that no one can remember or recognise why not skip a step and just call things by the barcode numbers.

With names comes familiarity. The world’s most well known phone has a name, the Blackberry. With that name comes nicknames like Crackberry and Blackberryitis. While they’re not a positive reflection on the user they’re a positive reflection on Blackberries. It couldn’t happen without a real name, no one will ever says k801iitis.