What’s in a name? A rose by any other name smells just as sweet! Yes, I did just start a tech article with some poorly remembered Shakespeare. Feel free to judge. But a major issue that we see today is phone names. The running trend with phone names seems to be that companies are making lines of phone, such as the Galaxy S, S2, S3, and S4… the Nexus One, 4, and 5, or the iPhone 3G, 4, 4S, 5, 5C, or 5S. Basically, phones today are running off brand recognition. I’m not saying that they aren’t quality phones. Each, in their own ways, have great things about them but it is clear that they have are following very similar patterns in branding, and it seems to be working for them. HTC has not yet had this luck. Ever since the success of the HTC Desire two years ago, they have not been building the best handsets. Last year, HTC came out with their ace-in-the-hole: the HTC One. This phone was critically acclaimed by the masses. It was, and still is, a phone of superior build quality and great design. Of course, with the upcoming HTC M8, which has still yet to be officially named, but it seen as a successor to the One, they are facing a slight problem…what to name it
HTC’s other variations of the One, like the One X, One S, and One V, were not as earth-shattering as the original, but their names still carried the weight and brand recognition of it. After building up the brand as much as they have, the cannot really afford to just trash it. Some people have called the phone the HTC One 2, which seems unlikely as it sounds as if someone was doing a sound check on a microphone. Of course, that could also give them a promotional advantage with the device should they choose to go that route, but it seems unlikely. Even though Samsung pulled it off with their S and Note lines, they only had one number in the name, which makes it seem a lot less cheesy. Should they keep it going, the HTC One 3 or One 4 would just sound stupid in my humble opinion. They could just call it the HTC Two, which TechRadar does not think is a likely name, but they could put a spin on it by saying something like “One just wasn’t good enough” or something like that. Besides the fact that they would be throwing the idea of the HTC One out the window (in respect to the name) it does not seem that bad of an option.
They could also follow a similar style to Apple, who simply calls their devices by their names. In this case, I am referring to the iPad, the iPod, and the MacBook, not the iPhone. If they called the new M8 the One again, it would have immediate brand recognition, but then what about the current model? Some have said that they could call it the HTC One Classic, which in all fairness is a perfectly viable short-term option. But, should they opt to keep the line going, then in a few years would the 2013 model be called the One Classic 2, or something of the like? That just sounds wordy and unappealing, and hopefully the marketing guys at HTC feel the same.
Now there is another option that HTC has used before… they could simply add something to the end of the name to signify a new rendition of the product. They have done it before with the One X+ and the One SV, so if they wanted to they could just call the M8 the One+ and call it a day. This is a very possible option, and holds off the naming issue until the next rendition of the phone, but it also gives the connotation that the device is not really a major improvement over the original like we hope it to be, but rather a mildly updated version. It will be interesting to see how they go about naming their new phone. Hopefully, the marketing guys at HTC will be able to come up with a name worthy of the successor of the One. What do you think? Do you have any name ideas for the next phone? Share any thoughts down below in the comments!