Kevin Bostic
Apple is a company that prizes simplicity in nearly all things, but a former Apple adviser says the pattern the company uses to name its bestselling product is decidedly not simple and sends the wrong message about the iPhone.
Apple's iPhone 4S (image via parvez mobile repairing solution)
Brand consultant Ken Segall says that Apple's naming conventions with the iPhone stray from the simplicity that typifies other aspects of the company's marketing and operations. Since the iPhone 3GS, Apple has introduced an "S" model every other year. Writing (via Business Insider) on his blog, Segall calls this habit unnecessarily complex and awkward.
"Tacking an S onto the existing model number sends a rather weak message," Segall writes. "It says that this is our 'off-year' product, with only modest improvements."
Segall worked with Apple on branding for more than a decade, serving as a creative director at Apple's longtime ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and later as a consultant to Apple. Working alongside Steve Jobs' creative team, Segall is credited with the creation of the iMac brand, as well as Apple's Think Different campaign.
The former Apple ad man also takes issue with Apple's apparent abandonment of the "new" naming convention it seemed to have adopted with the introduction of the third-generation iPad. The "new iPad" moniker seemed to signal a shift in naming for iOS devices, but the company never adopted it for the iPhone and appears to have dropped the practice with the fourth-generation iPad.
Segall — who has previously noted that Samsung's ads prodding Apple and iDevice buyers seem to be having an effect — says Apple should return to a simple numbering system with its iPhones, abandoning the "S" convention entirely.
"I think it's safe to say that if you're looking for a new car," Segall writes, "you're looking for a 2013 model — not a 2012S. What's important is that you get the latest and greatest... If it's worthy of being a new model, it's worthy of having its own number."
Despite Segall's protestations, Apple's naming conventions don't appear to be slowing sales of the company's hit smartphone. Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously noted that each revision of the iPhone, regardless of name, has gone on to sell more than all of its predecessors combined.
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203 Comments
The only weak message is calling your 6th device "5". That's just pre-kindergarten levels of stupidity.
I'm perfectly fine with the "S" monicker otherwise.
And if he weren't a complete idiot, he'd realize that the "S" models are no more "identical to last year's but better" than any other product from any other company.
This is a forum troll being paid to troll and disguising it as a job. "It looks the same; it must be the same phone" is crap we delete these days.
Very valid points. Rightly or wrongly when you hear "S" after a name that otherwise has remained the same like the 4 to 4S or possibly now the 5 and 5S, you immediately think minor upgrade. It doesn't matter that the changes might be as much if not more than going from the 4S to the 5, that is just a gut reaction. If they were to release the exact same phone they have planned for the 5S but call it the iPhone 6 I personally think there would be a lot more excitement and buzz resulting in higher sales.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/156841/former-apple-consultant-apples-iphone-naming-conventions-send-weak-message#post_2306108"]Apple is a company that prizes simplicity in nearly all things, but a former Apple adviser says the pattern the company uses to name its bestselling product is decidedly not simple and sends the wrong message about the iPhone. [/quote] OK, Mr. Segall: how many products have you developed and produced that sold >100,000,000 units?
So, this guy launched a more popular product that the iPhone? Please tell us more about it.
His argument doesn't make sense. We know that the models don't use years in the designation so what if they call it a 4, 4S, 5, or 5S. They still find plenty of buyers and have difficulty keeping up with demand. The jump from a 4 to a 4S was significant. I expect the 5S to be just as significant. Maybe Apple just lays out what they bring in the numerical releases, and the S version is mostly a software polish version. Hence the "S".