No longer a Pilot, the Palm III (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With reports that the Metro name will no longer be used by Microsoft for the UI in Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Xbox, some are wondering how Microsoft will get themselves out of this situation.
It appears to be that 'Windows 8 UI' will be the answer, or perhaps 'Modern UI', but there's no real need to worry on the exact name at the moment. Name changes, whether they are forced on a company by the courts or need to be changed for marketing reasons, can be found in the history books of many successful companies, and even well established products can have a new name and not lose momentum in the market.
Here are five of those name changes that could calm the nerves at Redmond.
Pilot to Palm.
One of the trailblazing PDA companies of the nineties, Palm Computing was up against Microsoft and Apple with limited resources. The Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 handhelds proved a huge success, but as the second generation was ready to launch, the Pilot Pen company took objection to the use of their 'Pilot' brand. The new devices went under the moniker of PalmPilot, before the complete loss of the Pilot branding happened with the launch of the Palm III. All the goodwill and recognition of the Pilot brand had moved over to the Palm brand, and the world fell in love with the form factor and simple to use PDA.
Jerry's Guide To The World Wide Web to Yahoo!
Going from the rather descriptive name given to a directory project in University (after all, they were engineers) to something a bit more memorable was a smart thing to do. Yahoo is one of the big online brands of the 21st century, and it's still at the top table (just) with the recent appointment of CEO Marissa Mayer. This change early in the life of the product was down to smart marketing, keeping it simple, and above all making the product fun.
Opal Fruits to Starburst.
A British favourite here, launched in 1959. As the rest of the world enjoyed their Starburst candy chews, the Brits carried on with the sweet that was "made to make your mouth water." When the time came to standardise the naming and branding across the world, Opal Fruits were no more, and Starburst hit the UK stores. Still on sale today in vast numbers with a global footprint, this was a successful name switch, but one where everyone still fondly remembers the former product.
LindowsOS to Linspire.
Sued by Microsoft, LindowsOS saw those claims rejected by the courts, and then subsequently settled instead of going through a retrial. That settlement saw the name change to Linspire, but the PR was already done... Michael Robertson's Linux OS distribution had shown that there were alternatives to Windows out there, and some canny marketing ensured that the story was picked up by the media. Linspire is no longer with us, bought out by Xandros, but for a brief moment it burned ever so brightly, showing the way for others to follow.
Coca-Cola to 'replaced by New Coke' to Coca-Cola Classic to Coca-Cola.
The classic marketing mis-step of the eighties, as the Coca-Cola Company attempted to reintroduce the older recipe after replacing it with 'New Coke'. While the launch of the altered recipe is now seen as a textbook case in marketing of how not to do it, the recovery put in place by the company to bring back the 'classic' flavour through the use of a well placed suffix allowed New Coke to splutter on while the new name of the original product was accepted by all. The 'classic' tag was dropped in 2009, its mission finally accomplished.
