Long before Motorola took the stage last week and unveiled a brand new range of devices within the RAZR and DROID family, I asked all of you whether or not you thought the DROID name stands for anything. If it represents something. Or, if it's just a title that Verizon can stick on some phones whenever they feel like it, to be different from everyone else.
I was asked yesterday about the new DROID RAZR devices, what I thought about them. It was a pretty simple response: they exist, but I'm not sure why anyone would go out of their way to pick one up. Nothing about them really stood out. Not the display. Not the processor. The DROID RAZR M's display is downright uninspiring. And the DROID RAZR MAXX HD's battery is the same battery in the DROID RAZR MAXX.
So, unless you're looking to get your hands on a new device, or are upgrading from something other than the DROID RAZR device you bought late last year (or early this year!), I can understand why these three new devices wouldn't make a ping on your radar.
Taylor Martin tweeted right after the event that the DROID name means nothing anymore. Obviously, I agreed with that. I've thought that way for a long time. But, you know what just doesn't make any sense to me? Why on Earth has Motorola and Verizon *already* killed the RAZR name? Who's idea was that?
You remember the first PureView device from Nokia, right? The 808 PureView. A smartphone in its basic function, but outfitted with a ridiculous camera. A camera that when it was first announced, and people saw the number of megapixels on paper, they immediately thought it was a joke. 41MP technically, but 38MP effectively.
But Nokia wasn't joking, and the PureView name suddenly meant something. It meant a huge number of megapixels, and photos so good that you'd have to give some serious thought that they were taken from a smartphone (when compared to other smartphones).
Now? Now PureView is getting shoved into an 8MP camera in the Nokia Lumia 920. So, PureView now no longer means what it did. Now, Nokia's PureView will be remembered with footage taken from an actual camera, and not a smartphone camera at all. (Even after their apology, it is revealing to me that Nokia would even want to go that route. If it isn't ready, you just don't show it. That simple.)
I want a name brand that means something. More to the point, I want a name brand to be revealed, and then it to last. I want it to represent something, something top-tier, and I want it to *keep* meaning that down the line. Do you realize that the RAZR name brand has already been washed out by three completely pointless, iterative devices just after the *first* product cycle? Why?
For clarity: there is absolutely no reason the DROID RAZR HD has to exist. Motorola would be almost in the clear here if they had just launched the DROID RAZR M and the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. Three devices is overkill and pointless. Stop it.
*Stop it*.
You know what? The only name brand that I can think of that's survived the test of time is the EVO name. Sure, there have been devices like the HTC EVO Shift 4G and the HTC EVO 3D, but those are just two devices, released far apart, that sully the whole brand name. That isn't bad. Not bad at all.
Do you think there are any brand names out there that matter in the mobile industry? We already know how Taylor feels about the Nexus name (and I would agree with him these days on that, too), so what about you? Let me know if you think the name brand is dead, Dear Reader, or if its just in hibernation.