A Rose By Any Other Word Is My Cellphone

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."
- Juliet, Romeo and Juliet

"A rose is a rose is a rose."
- Gertrude Stein

What do you call that battery-operated device you carry around in your hand that lets you talk to other people, listen to music, watch videos, locate yourself and your friends, watch televised media and pay for your lunch?

Here's the flash: Whatever you call it, Motorola has sold in the last two years, 50 million Razr units almost EQUAL to the number of Ipods sold by Apple.

In the December 4 Business Week article on Upward Mobility, Motorla calls it the "device formerly known as a cellphone." Nokia calls it a "multimedia computer." Samsung says they are "mobile information terminals."

This is a lot like Adam, who, in the book Does G-d Have A Big Toe?, called a bear that "big, brown, furry two-eyed big-clawed, loud, scary beast." And he used that term only after he realized that he couldn't just assign a number to each of the animals in the world. Hmmmmnnnnnnn, kind of sounds like the electronics industry. And Adam called the bear a bear after the bear told him what he wanted to be called.

Do we really need a Carolus Linnaeus of nomenclature to figure out what to call one of the most potentially useful and profitable devices created by man? Maybe it is easier to name G-d's creatures than it is to name Man's devices.

And we all know what happens to Man when he is left up to his own devices.

This is the kind of mistake that is made by many technical industries. You get breath-taking technical breakthroughs but it takes years for the breakthroughs and consumers to catch up with each other.

Remember the billions that European wireless carriers paid to purchase G3 bandwidths?

Basically, it comes down to three simple things: Talk, See, Buy.

Within those dynamics, a myriad of permutations and services will be developed and offered to consumers -- and the risk, the huge risk, is continuing confusion that will force developers to under-deliver.

If you can't name it simply, then how can you simply use it? This where I would spend a lot of time and conversation upfront talking to consumers, understanding their needs and desires and price parameters -- and this has to be done holistically. If each developer only looks at what they are developing, they are missing the bigger picture of the choices that consumers can make and what their competition is offering. It isn't easy. And it is certainly a bear of a problem. But if you can't tell the difference between a bear and a rose upfront, you run the risk of either being a beauty or someone's supper.