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It's brand reinforcement. Notice, each time you typed those, you typed the name of the manufacturer. Not saying it's a better approach than the Macbook, but hi
by leftnode 16y ago
It's brand reinforcement. Notice, each time you typed those, you typed the name of the manufacturer.
Not saying it's a better approach than the Macbook, but high end car manufacturers do it too. It's why Lexus and Mercedes have cars named like LS400, S500, etc. You have to say the brand name with each model, reinforcing the brand.
- enjo 16y agoJust as apple does with Mac*....In their case "Mac" IS the brand.
- leftnode 16y agoGood point, they were just a bit more creative in their method of brand reinforcement.
- piranha 16y agoIt's easy to understand which car you're talking about when you say S500 or E320 or 325xi.
- illumin8 16y agoNot for people that aren't car geeks. I know a 325xi is a BMW, but if you asked the general public which manufacturer makes a 325xi it would probably be less than 50% accurate.
- simonk 16y agoBut when comparing different car companies you usually say BMW 325xi. The 325xi stands for something. Its a 3 series, which isn't as nice as the 5 series. The xi is the type of car it is. When looking for a car and you ask someone they can actually tell you what it is. When people ask me if the Compaq Presario CQ61-406SA is any good, I have no idea what it even is.
- hugh3 16y agoRight, and the "25" means a 2.5 litre engine (though they've started to break from this scheme recently), the "x" means four-wheel-drive and the "i" means "fuel injected". (Even though fuel injection is no longer a distinguishing feature they keep the "i" because it sounds cool). There is, however, a limit to how much alphanumeric information one can generally keep track of. The 325xi is right on that limit. It's made easier for cars since we see hundreds of cars per day and they all proudly display their model name on the back whereas laptops hide theirs away in a corner. Also you've been able to buy a BMW 325i (+/- 5i) for well over thirty years whereas Compaq models change all the damn time.
- Tichy 16y agoTo underline the "not for car geeks" point: Not only do I not know what kind of car the 325xi is (and I am from Bavaria, the home country of BMW), I also don't know what "2.5 litre engine" stands for (is that a lot? good? bad?), or what the hell is the point of "fuel injected". Don't all cars drive on fuel (except for the few exotic electric ones)? Even though I am surrounded by cars, I never look at the model names. Funny to think most people probably feel about computers the way I feel about cars. Although these days I don't know much about the internals of computers anymore, either. Mostly I care about "fast enough", "can run games/can't run games", "runs Linux", "noisy fan/not so noisy fan".
- illumin8 16y ago"But when comparing different car companies you usually say BMW 325xi." That was exactly the point of the grandparent poster. Obscure numbers enforces brand recognition because you have to say "BMW 325xi" if you expect everyone to know what you're talking about, thus enforcing the BMW brand. If Apple did this you would have to say "Apple MBPi750" every time just to tell people you're talking about an Apple MacBookPro. While it might help Apple's brand recognition it's a major fuck you to consumers as we appreciate simplicity over corporate brand recognition.
- jseliger 16y agoNeither do. I But cars often cost 10 – 40x what computers cost, so my willingness to spend a lot of time figuring out what stuff means goes up. In addition, all cars share the fundamental feature of foot -> petal and foot -> break. The rest can be inferred from a test drive.
- fleitz 16y agoBMW is the ultimate driving machine though. It's not meant for the general public, it's meant for driving enthusiasts and people with too much money.
- ryanpetrich 16y agoThe general public doesn't call it a "driving machine," we call it a car.
- schmidp 16y agoI guess you don't live in europe :-)
- shin_lao 16y agoMercedes names often have a meaning. SL == Sport Leicht - Sport Light The number generally refers to the volume of the engine, e.g. SL 350 => 3.7 L engine SL 500 => 5.0 L engine That's true for many Mercedes (SLK - Sport Leicht Kurtz) Mercedes C - Coupé. You also have Mercedes A and B with the underlying meaning "it's a small Mercedes", etc. Generally speaking car names make sense within the brand.
- there 16y agoit took acura/honda a while to figure that out. they used to have the integra, legend, vigor, etc. and then renamed all of them to have boring names like the rsx, cl/rl, and tl.