Products & Services
Nokia naming conventions
By JBC on 02 March 2010
GLOBAL – This morning’s announcement of the Nokia C5 completes what some of you may have picked up on over the last few months – a shift in Nokia’s device naming convention. There are now four series of devices – Nokia Cseries, Xseries, Eseries and Nseries. Whilst the latter two have been around for a while, and Xseries has been around since last year’s Nokia World, the latest addition of Cseries rounds off the complete set. What’s more, within each series of devices, we’re seeing a new range of numbers, from 1 to 9, each signifying the range of functionality on offer, and the approximate prices of the devices – 1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest.
Today’s announcement of the Nokia C5 joins its similarly named cousins of the Nokia X3 and Nokia X6, both of which were announced at Nokia World last year. As yet, we haven’t seen a similarly named E or N series device and of course, we won’t be commenting on when either of those might be happening.
This new naming convention is designed to make things easier for users, so they can quickly and easily work out where a device sits within the series and beyond that have a clearer idea of what each series does. Nseries remains the flagship and most advanced range of products. Xseries comes next and focuses on social entertainment. Eseries remains focussed on productivity and business whilst Cseries represents the core range of products.
Work on the new naming convention started way back in 2008, when extensive consumer research was done around the subject. The results of this research culminated in a new naming convention being created and first introduced late last year. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Related posts:
- Nokia Cseries…10 things you need to know
- Naming the Design by Community concept device (Poll 1 of 5)
- Naming the Design by Community concept device (Poll 2 of 5)
Tags | Cseries, eseries, Nokia C5, Nokia X16, Nokia X3, Nokia X6, nseries, Xseries
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:16 am
Indeed, Nokia helps to understand where which phone-line stands on the ladder. It has been necessary to clean up their product-ranges since some time.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
I think Cseries > NUMBERS (might as well be a barcode)
Ideally for naming conventions (especially for flagship[s]) they should have a NAME!
Build on the reputation of that NAME with future models.
e.g. Pre – Pre Plus
e.g. iPhone – 3G – 3GS. Different phones but reputation keeps improving despite previous phone’s misgivings.
even N95 – N95 8GB
Though I’m still wanting a simple 2 syllable NAME (at least for the flagship). It needs to roll of the tongue like melted butter. Something easily pronounced, something MEMORABLE.
Codes- e.g. Nseries N97/N79/N96/N95/N93, so easy for geeks/bloggers/tech peeps but not so for your average consumer.
Previous RANT on Nokia naming:
http://bit.ly/5LWGBC
Looking forward to the N9 eNnine
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:26 am
On this subject, how does Nokia plan on handling the naming of the S60 OS in years to come? Low-end phones like the C5 run S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, which is derived from Symbian 9.3. Touchscreen devices will transition from S60 5th Edition to Symbian^N this year, but there’s no support for these sorts of low-end devices, so they’ll continue to run S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. That name is a bit of a mess, especially when you’ve got S^N and S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices side-by-side in the same range. Will Nokia be going for a new name for its low-end OS in the future?
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March 2nd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Could you be more precise. Do you mean ALL Nokia phones will fall into these 4 series only? I assume not (i.e. that the likes of 1100 etc. will continue to exist). If not, I would correct your posting to talk about converged/smart phones only (assuming there won’t be any S40s in these series).
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Alex Whiteside Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Well, the numbering scheme only applies to new phones. It won’t affect the existing numbered phones retroactively. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next Nokia 1xxx was the C1.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:45 pm
That’s good way and going better, but why Nokia can not make phones named like: Aeon or Morph. New flagship named Morph would be just awesome.
“Hey you got new phone?”
“Yeah”
“That is some new Nokia? What model is it?”
“It’s called Morph”
“Woah”
Or
“Hey you got new phone?”
“Yeah”
“That is some new Nokia? What model is it?”
“It’s called 6375″
“….okey”
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m Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:49 pm
@Henry The article already answered your question: “This new naming convention is designed to make things easier for users, so they can quickly and easily work out where a device sits within the series and beyond that have a clearer idea of what each series does”.
With the great amount of nokia products that are out there, how do you know which is which and what it can do? Oh, try to come up a name for all models is another story…
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Jay Montano Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:24 am
Yup – that makes sense when you’ve got a huge portfolio.
I think the question on the naming are geared towards the flagship.
The phone that is set apart from all the others needs a name.
Maybe even keep the whole N1, N2, N3, but which ever the flagship is, it should also come with a name.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Does this mean that after, for example, C5, there will be another phone which will continue the C5 spirit, and with a similar name? Like Pre and Pre Plus, for example?
Because as much as I hate some Apple practices, I have to admit that they were clever having only _one_ phone, but with several successors.
I don’t want Nokia doing only one type of phone, of course, but having a limited set of models, and bringing some continuity to the set is a must have, IMHO.
Developer’s life is much simplified if the amount of devices is somewhat limited, so one has the chance to grasp it.
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James Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I agree. Soon they’ll run out of numbers. If they just replace the C5 with a new C5 then it could be pretty confusing for consumers even if there’s a gap of few years.
They could call the next one the 2011 C5 but that’s pretty rubbish too.
Imagine going onto ebay and thinking you’re buying a new model but actually you get a two year old phone (e.g. “Band new Nokia C5″).
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Christian Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
What about Audi A4, A5, A6, A8 ?
What about BMW series 3xx, 5xx, 7xx ?
What about Mercedes Classes C, E, S ?
It’s a very good way !
Thank you Nokia !
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March 3rd, 2010 at 8:54 am
From past experience, I mistake I wish Nokia would have avoided with the new names is mixing devices with different platforms under very similar names (e.g. the X3 is Series 40 while the X6 is Symbian) – this makes it increasingly difficult for customers to go out and specify what phone they want if they are interested in apps, expect by wading through long compatibility lists.
At least, things like reusing the “6700″ moniker for both S40 and S60 devices will hopefully be a thing of the past…
One trend I find interesting about the C5 is that it still uses S60 3rd Edition (presumably advanced FP2) – so “S60 3rd” looks set to become a midrange platform in its own right that is starting to diverge increasingly from Qt-based, touch-only Symbian^x.
Of course, these are all “geeky” arguments, but as the developer of an application that people actually go out and buy phones for based on the compatibility with our software (the Nuance TALKS screenreader for the visually impared), I have been stung many times by confusing product names that made people buy the wrong model…
ciao marcus
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Mike Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Article already explained that numbering inside of each series tells how advanced the phone is when compared to otrher phones in the same series.
Eg. X6 is much more advanced than X3. X2 would be less advanced than X3 and X7 would be more advanced than X6.
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March 4th, 2010 at 12:59 am
Hello
I think the previous way of device naming used by Nokia was fairly more enjoyable, mysterious and sophisticated. The new naming convention (so-called easy to remember, easy to pronounce ,identifiable) is a silly, childish and fool way of naming, only regarding low-IQ hollow-minded portion of folks. I think it is not that torturous for mobile enthusiasts (or even those who only want to buy a mobile phone) to remember or at-least write down the four-digit number of their favorite model! Is it?
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Jay Montano Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
“I think the previous way of device naming used by Nokia was fairly more enjoyable, mysterious and sophisticated. The new naming convention (so-called easy to remember, easy to pronounce ,identifiable) is a silly, childish and fool way of naming, only regarding low-IQ hollow-minded portion of folks. I think it is not that torturous for mobile enthusiasts (or even those who only want to buy a mobile phone) to remember or at-least write down the four-digit number of their favorite”
Are you serious? -_-
The fact you have to write the name down to remember it shows flawed branding. They might as well be serial numbers.
Remembering a string of random codes/letters has nothing to do with IQ level. For much of the general public and so Nokia’s consumers/potential customers, they ARE NOT mobile enthusiasts and so will not bother with remembering all the permutations of these model numbers. Possibly OK for low end forgettable devices.
However,
This is damaging for the high end models, i.e. flagships, where the name in itself speaks volumes and is one of the first things to set it apart from the others. It might have worked years ago when all eyes were always on Nokia. But not anymore.
Now it’s all about being as less convoluted as possible. Both in UI, services and branding.
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March 13th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I really appreciate your new naming conventions. But I have one question and two suggestions:
Q1: How will you name your devices in about 10 months? There won’t be a number between 1 and 9 left.
S1: Names for flagship-devices. Not every device needs a name, but you top-products deserve a name.
S2: Putting the input type into the name f.e. the C5 as announced is called C5t for having a t9-keybord. Then you can name a device with the same features but an other input method f.e. C5q (with qwerty-keyboard) or C5s (slate).
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Mikey_94 Reply:
April 14th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Answering your question, Nokia is planning to name devices using the same alpha-numeric nomenclature, but with a different suffix
e.g. C5-00 will be replaced by C5-01
X6-00 will be replaced by X6-01 and so on
this will allow Nokia to create more phones without crowding up and filling the name range from 1 – 9 quickly
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March 15th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Better stop making all sorts of models, and focus on one model, that can serve all basic needs. Take an iphone for an example.
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March 15th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
It’s much better that having mutiple phones with the same model numbers.
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March 23rd, 2010 at 11:36 am
If there would be one called Nokia C4 that would be pretty funny heh
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April 9th, 2010 at 11:22 am
hello sir,
new nokia C5 & X3 when it will be avaliable in Mumbai?
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April 27th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Why do people always have to brag about iPhone? It may contain nearly everything a geek would ask for, but look at the price. Does a basic-user need iPhone? No.
I have multimedia needs. Do I need iPhone. Hell no. I cannot afford it. Thanks to Nokia I have purchased N85 from their bouquet at much lower cost, which beats iPhone in some areas.
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