More often than we’d like, phones are announced with absolutely horrifying names. Acer’s beTouch, the Casio G’zOne Commando, and the HTC ChaCha all fall hard into that category.
They leave you wondering what went down in the conference room where that name was born, and what could have possibly been going on in the minds of the people who approved them. But honestly, it’s much harder than you think to find a phone with a well-suited, nice-sounding, non-awkward name. Which is why Nokia is leaving it up to us.
When it comes to Nokia’s Windows Phone 7-powered handsets in the U.S., apparently we’re calling the shots as far as names are concerned. The company has posted a poll with over 20 different name options, along with the ability to make your own suggestion. So far the Nokia “Elite”, “Fusion”, “Metro”, and “Genesis” are ahead, with “Phoenix” taking the lead.
In my humble opinion, Phoenix is fitting symbolically but a Genesis is really what Nokia desperately needs. The company has struggled through its attempted transition to MeeGo — a dream that died mere moments after it came into existence. And Nokia continues to lose market share as we wait for Windows Phone 7 to turn things around.
The good news is that Windows-powered Nokia is coming. The fact that U.S. head of development marketing Chanse Arrington put up a poll is only further proof of that. We just hope that the Nokia Phoenix, or Genesis, or Fusion, or whatever… gets here sooner rather than later.