A Smartphone So Epic, It Needs Six Names

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Saturday Night Live ran an amusing advertisement that lampoons Verizon’s copious use of jargon and perplexing product branding, spotlighting 4G LTE and concluding with the tagline: It’s an old person’s nightmare. But don’t take my word for it, play the embedded skit above.

When asked if I found the bit entertaining, I was reminded of MadTV’s “iPad” prognostication and (the very real) Sprint Samsung Galaxy S II EPIC 4G Touch television commercial – a smartphone so impressive, it requires six names!

We’ve previously commented on branding silliness with the Technology Super Heros of 2010. And, yet, perhaps folks in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones… as I recently caught my self communicating in an alien tongue:

2 thoughts on “A Smartphone So Epic, It Needs Six Names”

  1. That was a great skit! It’s so true… Since every manufacture puts out about 10 android phones a month, since the OS is at no cost to the manufacture, the market is saturated with hundreds of devices that all do the same thing plus with their 5 to 7 names per phone, it makes matter even worse what is what… anyway…

    To put it into perspective, should someone not understand today’s tech, your example could translate to old people like:

    Roku = State
    Plex = County
    Hulu = Town

    or

    Roku = Hardware
    Plex = Operating System
    Hulu = Application

    or

    Roku = Car
    Plex = Engine
    Hulu = Radio

  2. If you’re successful, Android does indeed have a cost… in fact, I’d say it’s highly likely Microsoft makes more money licensing Android than they do selling Windows Phones at this point. But, yeah – way too many similar phones trying to differentiate on minor points with bizarre names. That Xyboard sure is Rezounding.

    And here’s another send up. Ozzy and Bieber mock 4G (for Best Buy) at the 2011 Super Bowl:

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