Apple iPhone 3GS = branding megafail
When it comes to branding, marketing, advertising, PR and the general concepts surrounding efforts to sell stuff, Apple is one of the best in the business — hands down. Love Apple products or hate them, there’s really no question it knows how design an attractive product and make it even more attractive using marcom. As such, the company is always meticulous with the messages it delivers, the wording it chooses and the quality of its marketing/advertising — well, almost always.
Its latest product, the iPhone 3GS, is a smash hit. It launched this past Friday in fewer countries than the iPhone 3G did last year and still managed to sell over a million handsets in its opening weekend — more units than its predecessor in fact. Remarkable. There is a major fault in Apple’s new handset however, that we likely wouldn’t have seen under Stevo’s watch: the branding. Yes, we’re sure Jobs played a major role in naming the device and we can’t believe “3GS” is what the crew in Cupertino landed on but considering how peculiar and unfriendly to search engines the name is, one would think the company would take particular care in referring to the handset. Nope. According to Apple, the official name of its new handset is “iPhone 3GS”. Fair enough. Take a look at Apple’s website at the time of this writing however, and you’ll find no less than a hundred references to the “iPhone 3G S” — with a space between the “3G” and the “S”. Crazy. This is also how the handset was presented when it was introduced earlier this month: “3G S”.
To be honest, we can’t remember ever having seen Apple fail so massively in this department. It may seem trivial but companies take branding extremely seriously for several reasons and all of these reasons play key roles in the marketing/sales processes. Apple is cleaning up its site and changing “3G S” to “3GS” but even now there are still a few omissions. The screen cap above was taken this morning and it shows less than a quarter of a page with four mistakes alone.
So welcome back, Mr. Jobs. Time to get to work.
This is so fluff. I am not an Apple fan but this type of “critical” reporting even makes my eyes roll. Come on. Megafail? Even that one is real stretch.
It is the 3G S not 3GS it the S version of the 3G just like in Nov they will have the 3G P for the pro crowd.
Yes it’s stupid to point it out… Who the fuck really cares? As far as I’m concerned the product is named both ways. The market will decide what it’s called! It’s the new “iPhone” for the average person.
The more important point being it’s the biggest launch this summer for mobile devices. My god man you need to get out more!!!
I think Apple was just trying to stay away from anything resembling Apple II gs, hence the space. iPhone 3G … S. Further, the S isn’t really part of what 3G. Overall it’s almost as bad as the Acura TL Type S
Well it just goes to show that BoyGenius will post anything to get more page views. Thanks for wasting my time with this non-story.
Btw using “fail” and especially mega-fail in an article is a sure sign it was written by a teenager.
I’m with more than a few other posters. WTF is the point of this blog entry? What a lame waste of time…
this just shows how much the world is hanging off of apple’s tit. fureaking ridiculous that this is even a story
Yet, you not only took the time to read the story and waste more of your time by posting that it waste of your time.
Who’s the bigger idiot. He who writes the article or he who reads it and then comments on how much it wasted his time.
Short Story Long…
QUIT YOUR BITCHING
Zzzzzzz. . .
So the iphone is now called the iPhone 3gssssssss or gees
What about IIIGS, or that harkens back to IIGS too much?
Can’t believe this was worthy of an article (it really isn’t). While it might be important if its YOUR JOB, the truth is it isn’t so it’s not even worth noting.
No one would have noticed if nothing had been said .
I like how he actually put time and effort into righting this article. Reading this article is as enjoyable as watching the paint on my neighbours porch dry.
p.s the spelling errors in my post are more interesting.
p.s Me love you long time, me so horny for you.
I find it funny that all the people who took the time to respond “who the f cares” actually did care. They took the time to read the news and write about it lol.
Jobs is sharing a cave with Bin Laden
I could care less what they name it, or if it had a space, or a hyphen, or anything else.
Are you serious with this story? Os it a slow news day or something? Give me a break!
Nobody cares but you. If it’s a good product it will sell. Apple is not concerned with search engines for God’s sake. They do their own advertising all over the place. Nobody that wants an iPhone has to do a google search. They all know where to go.
This is the dumbest ’story’ you guys have ever posted!
This post makes it seem as though the space was a mistake, or unintentional. But even if it isn’t the implication, my opinion on the thinking behind the branding is that the addition of the letter fits a piece of hardware that has only upgrades to a previous model. The keyword remains “3G”, and as far as searchability (although I don’t assume there are many people who make a decision to buy this phone because of a Google search and a subsequent enlightenment of the existence of the iPhone), “3G” and “iPhone” are the keywords that have been embedded into the market already, and the addition of the S simply designates an upgrade, the way a “-R” usually does for automobiles, or “[space] Pro” does for many other consumer products. Plus, I see this iteration of the iPhone as simply a filler to keep the hype up between now and the next generation, multi-carrier (US) 4G models which will require more marketing power, rightfully so, than an upgraded legacy model.
your that miffed over a typo? seriously does any one honestly care about this? was BGR on a holdiay and you ran outa tour pics and news to fanboy over??? how about more coverage of the earscreeching noise the phone makes following an alert sound or notification? or maybe an expose into how an app is published. whining over a typo=megafail
God forbid people, stop getting at BG!!!
Still think you’ve got an educated, cerebral readership, BG? LoL
Wow your standards are high… have you look at the mirror lately, sorry maybe you are the most perfect person on earth. – never make a mistake in his life… some genius.
By removing the space, Apple created even more free advertising for the iPhone 3GS.
Now that is wonderful news for Apple. It keeps them in people’s minds. No company gets as much free advertising as Apple.
@RM: a major part of the reason they have so many sheep lining up to get the iphone, is because of the branding efforts of apple. U need to keep thing fresh, unique and to the point. I honestly thought that the “S” was a cool move. Very apple like. Subtle, clever, elegant. Every one else is adding letters to numbers these days. It seems to be the latest fad. Eventually ull have phone names like “iphone 3GSWEARELOOSERS”. U guys like that? Looks like my 135i’s vin number lol. Instead of having something boring and un original like iphone 3GS, u have something unique and interesting like Iphone 3G S. I love it. A subtle difference like that, make a world of difference in a saturated market to the consumer. U know ur dealing with someone who’s not a copy of everyone else, who’s a copy of everyone else. Simple, quaint, pretty, elegant…Apple.
And what does the S stand for? Same sh*t, different year.