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Letter to the editor

Phone names need that certain ring

Verizon, too, gets personal with its new line.

By MADHUSMITA BORA, Times Staff Writer
Published October 4, 2007

What's in a name?

Customers, sales, ringing profits, says the wireless industry.

Verizon's latest offerings announced Wednesday -Voyager, Juke, Pearl and Venus - ride a trend of cell phones that have found their identity and popularity in cool names.

Technology is important, but equally important is a catchy name to nab that customer still on the fence.

So, goodbye Nokia 5120 and Kyocera 2135.

It's the era of iPhones, Chocolates and Razrs.

"It all goes back to the personal nature of the phone," said Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA, the wireless association.

"It's morphing from an inanimate object to be a part of a personality, and under that lies the move from (naming phones) with numbers and alphabet (letters) to names."

The race for grabbing hip names is triggered by rising cell phone sales in a super-competitive market. Wireless company revenues last year reached $127-billion, up considerably from $115-billion in 2005 and a mere $54-billion in 2000.

[Last modified October 3, 2007, 23:06:19]