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The Verge: Apple is losing the name game

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I think calling the new smaller iphone the SE is a mistake, not saying it should have a number but call it mini like the ipad range, keep something common between all these different apple models. The entire range of devices are becoming more scrambled every year.
 

Fliesen

Member
I think they were trying to avoid it sounding like "iPhone Sexy".

that's the same dumb logic as people claiming that "6S" was meant to sound like "success" and that "4S" was meant to be "for Steve"

C was widely accepted to mean "color" (as opposed to 'cheap', which it didn't end up being)

it could be repurposed to mean 'compact'. Though, the 5C was widely regarded a commercial failure (even though there's plenty of 5C owners i know) so i guess Apple wants to get rid of that baggage, too.
 
They're definitely a mess right now. Their reluctance to drop or replace ancient products while at the same time calling people with 5-year-old PCs "sad" is beyond hypocritical. Their product line needs a serious trim.
 

Fliesen

Member
They can say Special Edition all they want. It's S Economy.

That said, my wife is super happy it's available. ^_^

A colleague of mine has been whining for a smaller phone ever since the 6 came out and whose iPhone 5 keeps being a pain in the ass, is "still pissed that they're only giving it the 6S' camera and not the 6S+' "

... there's just no pleasing some people.
 

Tobor

Member
They're definitely a mess right now. Their reluctance to drop or replace ancient products while at the same time calling people with 5-year-old PCs "sad" is beyond hypocritical. Their product line needs a serious trim.

Ancient products? Lol.

The oldest iPhone they sell is less than two years old. I'm typing this post on one.

The oldest iPad they currently sell is 2.5 years old. That's the Mini 2, which is sold as a budget entry model.
 

Harmen

Member
I feel they are diluting their brand a bit. To me, a large part of Apple's recent effectiveness was having a limited amount of recognizable/iconic premium products (I say recent because the competition has caught up, depending on one's preferences, unlike back in the IPhone 4 days or before that). I feel they are losing grip on that part of their image a bit.

The IPhone has become more of a "normal" device, with cheaper variations and such, just like other brands. This is just a feeling based on myself and anecdotal evidence, however. A few years back the newest IPhone was cool to own, now it is normal. Not to say that doesn't mean it is quality though.
 

kiguel182

Member
Not even Nintendo is this bad.

iPhone SE is basically the "iPhone 6s Minus". It's a smaller iPhone. The SE name makes no sense. iPad is even worse. At first there was the iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro; three different sizes. That kind of makes sense. Now there's an iPad Air-sized iPad Pro. What the heck?

Also, there's the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. Cool, the Pro is more powerful and the Air is the thinnest model. Makes sense. Except no, now there's a device simply called "MacBook" that's even thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air.

Yup. It's a mess. Too many models that overlap.
 

Fliesen

Member
Ancient products? Lol.

The oldest iPhone they sell is less than two years old. I'm typing this post on one.

The oldest iPad they currently sell is 2.5 years old. That's the Mini 2, which is sold as a budget entry model.

3rd gen AppleTV is 4 years old.
the Macbook Air's display is rather "ancient" now, though. It's the same since late 2010.

but that's about it.

edit: oh, also the non-retina "Macbook Pro 13". get rid of that shit. that thing has a 1280*800 resolution display. That's as much/little as the iPhone 6 has.
 

Sorcerer

Member
I remember when buying a new Apple tv or a new airport back in the day, I had to carry around the model number to make sure I was getting the latest version. Stores such as Best Buy would still have old versions in stock as well as the new so you had to be careful, even the packaging remained exactly the same.
 
Can we resurrect Mr Jobs?

Honestly, this seems kinda like what they are trying to do. Bringing out a "Pro" iPad reverting to the same size Jobs championed while he was alive and revealed the original iPad as well as the iPhone SE being current-gen horsepower but in exactly the last design Apple had in the pipeline when he died.

Also, as a previous poster stated, I've been a long time Apple fan here and really don't like what I'm seeing over the past few years with them.
 

mcfrank

Member
Ancient products? Lol.

The oldest iPhone they sell is less than two years old. I'm typing this post on one.

The oldest iPad they currently sell is 2.5 years old. That's the Mini 2, which is sold as a budget entry model.

Mac Pro is pretty ancient =(
 
Ancient products? Lol.

The oldest iPhone they sell is less than two years old. I'm typing this post on one.

The oldest iPad they currently sell is 2.5 years old. That's the Mini 2, which is sold as a budget entry model.

With the rate mobile technology is going, a 2.5-year-old tablet is ancient.
 
Not even Nintendo is this bad.

iPhone SE is basically the "iPhone 6s Minus". It's a smaller iPhone. The SE name makes no sense. iPad is even worse. At first there was the iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro; three different sizes. That kind of makes sense. Now there's an iPad Air-sized iPad Pro. What the heck?

It's just a way for them to increase the price of the iPad. Name it Pro, stop making Airs. This was always their "next" ipad. But now they get to charge $100 more than they would have otherwise.

I like Tim Cook, but I think he likes to get "cute" with branding in a way that will ultimately hurt Apple.
 

Tobor

Member
It's a perfect mobile device for kids; why dump it?

Right. It's also the model for the education market. They've always kept old models around for education.

Again, exactly the same as Jobs era Apple. The only difference is they don't label the models for education anymore. But it's been a long time since they stopped doing that with Macs.
 

TylerD

Member
Man, it's a wonder they've ever been able to sell a computer over there. /rolls eyes

Can we stop pretending this is some Byzantine logic puzzle?

It's small, medium, large, with a few price points for each. It's not the Gordian knot of shopping experiences.

Look, I'm not saying that it's an impossible task for someone to find out about the different models and choose the one that they want. Can you at least agree that the iPad model line and naming system is more convoluted and confusing than it needs to be?
 

Sorcerer

Member
Look, I'm not saying that it's an impossible task for someone to find out about the different models and choose the one that they want. Can you at least agree that the iPad model line and naming system is more convoluted and confusing than it needs to be?

I think its Apple's way trying to pretend that they don't do sequels. If they did the numbering system the public would catch on that they update too frequently. If the numbering system was so blatant such as Ipad 15 more people would be willing to wait a longer time for say the Ipad 18 because they would know exactly when it was coming.
 

Fliesen

Member
I think its Apple's way trying to pretend that they don't do sequels. If they did the numbering system the public would catch on that they update too frequently. If the numbering system was so blatant such as Ipad 15 more people would be willing to wait a longer time for say the Ipad 18 because they would know exactly when it was coming.

everyone and their dog knows that Apple updates their iDevices once a year (on average).

but yeah, incrementing version numbers look kinda dumb, which is why they're fans of:

* the "S" generation of phones
* codenames (like MacOS versions have)
 

TylerD

Member
You both missed my point completely. If a consumer wants an iPad, they're getting an iPad and they won't get so confused by the name that they'll skip over the product.

Articles like these are even sillier when apple is on top.

Your point wasn't that clear then.
 

RootCause

Member
Riiiight.... I'll wait as the 7 goes on to be the best selling phone, like all the previous release.
Apple is doom, is the new Nintendo is doom.
 

Breakage

Member
SE is just plain misleading.
Special Edition suggests something exclusive that isn't available on any other model.
The SE isn't even a fully featured 6S - no 3D touch.
 

NimbusD

Member
When Jobs came back to Apple I'm pretty sure he drew four squares within a square and said there should be four product types, two low-end models and two high end models, with two being for the casual consumer and two for the power user (it was something along those lines). They should really re-instate this line of thinking.

Yeah pretty much. Not that I've ever been a mac user outside of necessity sometimes, but I've always appreciated that they've had the simplicity down pat. I regularly tell non-computery people who don't care to learn anything about their computer that they should feel fine going with a mac if they have it (not that you can't with a mac, not trying to trash it, just you're fine with using one if youll never give a shit about learning anything relating to computers).

Their lineup that's appeared within the last year even has me fucking confused. Who are these products even for? They're all just a reaction to other products put out by other companies with very little care for what it does to their line up of products. I always thought Jobs was a bit stark when it came to his conservativeness (not wanting to have a larger screened iphone, etc), but I think that actually makes a shit ton more sense than this cluster-f.

I gotta imagine it's going to hurt them software-wise too at some point. Expanding their line so drastically, there's either a growing overhead to keep everything up to date and in line with each other or one or two products get fucked eventually.
 
When Jobs came back to Apple I'm pretty sure he drew four squares within a square and said there should be four product types, two low-end models and two high end models, with two being for the casual consumer and two for the power user (it was something along those lines). They should really re-instate this line of thinking.

iPhone 6S Plus
iPhone 6S
iPhone 6S mini (what the SE should have been called)

And then have the 6 and 6 Plus available as well. Having older products than these causes confusion.

I think two sizes for the iPad Pro is fine, but the Air line needs to be retired.

iPad Pro (12.9 and 9.7 inch size options and bring the specs in line with each other asap, the fact that the 9.7 has a better camera is bizarre, make the only difference the size).
iPad mini (drop the numbers and just have one model available. If they really want two, just call the new one the iPad Pro mini)

As for the Mac's, merge the Air and the MacBook into one (pick either name and stick with it) and have one MacBook Pro with different screen sizes. Same with the iMac. Mac mini and Mac Pro are fine as is.

I think that would simplify a lot of the bullshit that's going on with their names and products right now.

Not saying they shouldn't do that but the difference is Apple was a failing company that didn't know what the hell they were doing until Jobs came in
 
You could probably say the same about the notebook range with 4 different models available.

You can definitely say it. It's been a strong criticism of Windows linup computers for ages now where it's virtually impossible for any normal person to know what differentiates any of their computers.

I took this screenshot last year when I went to buy my mom a new Lenovo, and this was the Lenovo website:

rJuraoK.png


I'm generally pretty familiar with new tech but I was so overwhelmed with options I honestly just left the Lenovo website. I got criticized by a host of windows fanboys in the thread I posted that in. But it was so overwhelming and confusing... Many of the laptops have the same photo (G series, S series, Y Series, Z series), have similar descriptions, but differ in prices in radical ways.

Apple for me is the opposite but not in a good way. I'm shopping for a new MacBook Pro and I'm frustrated when I go to websites like Amazon and can't tell which is the 2014 or 2015 versions without having some deep technical knowledge of which Intel chipset the newest version is supposed to have. Further confusing things, sellers have to put "NEWEST VERSION" in description, and those inevitably get stale and misleading.

Looking at the product line, innovation is pretty lacking. Maybe it'll happen with s/w instead.

Doubtful. Apple's software has really suffered over the last 2 or 3 years. iOS is falling behind in core features people have come to expect, and OS X -- while still my preferred desktop OS -- is caught not knowing what it is anymore, reducing the quality of its software for hokey features and being stubborn on implementing actually good features from Windows.
 
I agree with the suggestions to have it dated, a la the Nexus 7. You can ammend the devices as trends change (ie a bigger iphone) but the middle sized one always has this name, the big one always has that name etc. Years are a concept that, hopefully, most people understand.
 

Maxim726X

Member

Yep, this is exactly what I'm referring to. I tried buying a laptop dock for my office... That was a shitshow.

The sellers didn't even know which models worked with my ThinkPad.

Not to say that I don't love the machine- It's fantastic. But they really need to consolidate their product lines.
 
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