What would you rather have, an iPhone or a My Phone? Both Microsoft and Yahoo think you want a My Phone. On the iPhone section of its Website detailing the revamped Yahoo Mobile service, due to launch publicly in March, Yahoo marketers try to drum up interest in the new offering by using this headline in its marketing campaign:
From iPhone™ to “my” phone.
The iPhone trademark is taken (notice the ™), but that is not stopping mobile marketers from trying to ride on its coattails. Yesterday, Microsoft announced its own My Phone service for syncing data between your phone and desktop.
If you are a mobile marketer, here is a tip for you. Coming up with something that rhymes with iPhone to peddle your mobile services is not a winning strategy. It is derivative and shows a lack of imagination. It is as though they are trying to say, “Our products are like the iPhone, but only better and more cuddly.” Why even invite the comparison? That two major Web companies decided to characterize their products as the My Phone just goes to show how much the iPhone is defining the industry right now.
So what exactly is new about Yahoo Mobile? The service is built around Yahoo oneConnect, which the company announced at the World Mobile Congress last year. OneConnect is a social address book that pulls together all your contacts, emails, IMs, SMS messages, and activity streams from other social networks and social media sites across the Web. Building on top of oneConnect, Yahoo Mobile will integrate more services such as oneSearch (its mobile-optimized search engine) and Yahoo onePlace (a fancy feed reader that lets you keep track of blog posts, stock updates, sports scores, and the like). The different apps appear in a familiar icon grid, just like on the iPhone.
In March, Yahoo Mobile will be available as a destination on mobile browsers, as a new app for the iPhone, as well as apps for a wide range of smartphones including Blackberriey, Nokia, Windows Mobile, and other handsets. (Yahoo has been working in thisMobileCrunch found some screen shots last November). One noteworthy distinction between the iPhone app and the other smartphone apps is that Yahoo Mobile will incorporate the Opera mobile browser as one of its icons on the smartphone apps. It doesn’t appear that the Opera browser will be an option on the iPhone app. The mobile browser is not something that Apple is too keen on opening up to competition.
I agree with the article; it shows a total lack of confidence in the product to try and name something similar to the competition. They’d better watch their backs too…Apple might not appreciate the similarity in names too much, legally speaking.
Yeah, that is strange…why would Yahoo and Microsoft want to associate themselves with Cisco’s iPhone?
hello
got my first .me domain name just the other day. i could not resist. figure .com can be for business and .me for personal. My is the most powerful personalized prefix available. ever wonder why appel has not launched a social site called ispace.com? sounds corny. where would myspac be if it was called geospaces? http://seesmic....eads/tTL9aEUkGR
i did notice that the heading on the yaho app states “oneplace” which appears to be their moniker for mobile. myplace would have been a better choice.
OneLocator.com – winners stand alone
It is generally a better idea to have a name that is distinctive … otherwise, consumers will just get confused.
And since no one will confuse a Yahoo or Microsoft product for an Apple product, it is most likely Yahoo or Microsoft that will suffer.
Anjali Sen
How patehetic. Shows a complete and total lack of imagination. Apple are dominators as far as im concerned. Their marketing for the Iphone was shere brilliance. BTW, I found a free Ipod Touch offer on this site: http://www.craf...pod-touch-free/ – Not sure if its genunie but worth a shot
Am I the only one who thinks they both stole it from the Simpsons?
http://www.hulu...ns-mapple-store
You are right about the name. Yahoo! Officials should have given more thought about it. It is never a good idea to imitate a name.
It’s marketing copy, not the name.
It is interesting to see another technology major making a foray in mobile content/software market. There was a recent report on how the mobile content market, pegged around $ 60B market last year, is growing fast despite the downturn. The fact that this market is fragmented makes it more attractive for big companies. The report can be found here..
http://www.back.../1_02130901.asp
It is not interesting to see another blog-spam comment from you.
And ironically neither Yahoo or MSFT own the domain name MyPhone.com — it turns out the name is owned by Phone.com, who is reporting a jump in traffic since the MSFT announcement. And this is not the first time a major company announces the launch of a brand without having secured the domain name before the announcement.
Am I the only one who remembers the whole “my” craze from around 1997-1998? my.yahoo.com, my.excite.com, my.msn.com, etc etc. Seemed like every major portal added a customizable version of itself and slapped my. onto it.
Yes, you’re right. I was about saying this article was pointless. what’s the proof that MS wanted to rhyme with iPhone?
MyPhone Backup, its just logical IMHO
The thing is, Microsoft has a long history of using the word “My.”
If I remember correctly, they had “My Documents” back in Windows 95.
And since then, they use “My” for almost everything. So it’s not surprising they would use it for a phone app.
How about replacing “My…” with “Our…”
Seems more appropriate given all the social content, open-source software, dare I say licensing terms and malware… What exactly is “mine” anymore?
This headline and associated comments are totally misleading. The “my” part is mentioned in one piece of marketing copy, but you’re insinuating that Yahoo wants to call the product MyPhone, or claim that moniker.
False. But then again, you’re a blogger, not a journalist, so it’s not surprising.
Erick is definitely a sensationalist whether you consider him a blogger or a journalist. But, that is part of the fun of reading his articles.
“That two major Web companies decided to characterize their products as the My Phone just goes to show how much the iPhone is defining the industry right now.”
What about the fact that Windows has been using My _____ for years? (My Documents, My Music, etc.) It makes perfect sense for them to call it My Phone. Just because it happens to rhyme they shouldn’t have to use a different moniker.
I am pretty sure that Microsoft dropped the “my” moniker with Vista. With that said, I think Erick is making a big deal out of nothing. I do not think either company is parading this phrase around as a key component of their marketing strategy.
Thanks, Matt! Before scrolling down to read comments after reading the article I thought “Certainly the first comment will point out that this article is just much ado about ABSOLUTELY nothing.” Must be a very slow news day.
Agreed, especially since Yahoo is clearly not trying to use it as a phrase either.
And just a note, they’re still using “My” for music, pictures, etc. in Windows 7.
@Niraj
Nice catch!
And really, Yahoo isn’t even calling its services myPhone or anything. It’s just a tagline people. And the tagline here is specifically for the iPhone version of their services.
So what they did is they took a trademark brand name, and changed it a little bit, to make it their own. Similarly, users will take the the iPhone and install the Yahoo services and make it a little bit like their own.
@Brian
Don’t hate on bloggers my man. I’m a blogger and I caught that. Journalists can be just as sensationalist when trying to attract readers, trust me. Let’s not generalize shall we.
the “My” part is just for an analogy in a PR article, and Eric is just too excited about it.
Eric, I am wondering, when “iGoogle” launched, did you write a piece of shit like this?
well said
It’s pathetic that Eric’s articles are full of crapola of how he thinks every company is copying his Itarded view that Apple is the king and lord of innovation. It’s sad that he demonstrate his Ijesus dedication deep down his idiotic self. This is the second article that he points crap that are far from the fact. Maybe Dumbfeld should stop writting articles until he learns that not everything Apple makes is great and that other companies make great products without looking at the iTards!
remember, they’ve got Eric Schmidt on Google and Apple’s board. they are free to use the iName.
Techcrunch should join in with a MyShit section, where this can be tossed.
Perhaps, they are copying MySpace?
My is about personalization
MyPhone – I like it.
Could the big portals please f#$king stop it. The iphone is a fully web capable handset, I don’t want to be redirected to the gimped mobile version of you site (yeah, looking at you Yahoo and Google) and certainly don’t want to use a container app of any kind when I can just goto the regular site.
You know, full web it works. Please STOP IT!
It seems to me that when Apple picked up the My.Com domain name (a brilliant stroke on their part), they simply nailed the “My” Internet branding for themselves… end of story.
So for entirely selfish personal reasons, either Yahoo or Microsoft should make the owners of WW.Com (whoever they are) remarkably wealthy and then brand on WWPhone.com (the entirely selfish part, though really just tongue in cheek).
All kidding aside, online Internet marketing and branding is all about being memorable, however, if your competition owns a market, it is probably best not to push their brand, but rather find a suitable similar brand describing your product in a short and memorable way.
Apple is now so far ahead of the game in the Mobile Marketplace, that even Mobile titans like Nokia are playing catch-up, along with losers like Yahoo and Microsoft.
Everyones now going either the ‘My’ way or the ‘i’ way.
Plus its now ‘Touch’ this or come inside our new ‘App Store’.
Apple has shown everyone in this lazy sector, just how vital it was to develop the best Mobile Web Experience and the most innovative Mobile App Platform for future phones.
Its such a shame that they won’t release a Sim Free version of their next iPhone. Then it really would be ‘Game Over’ over their lame Mobile rivals.
The way Apple is growing, I feel it would be too tough for anyone to stop them…
Erick, try not being so negative all the time…
It is really getting old. Even the news at 10 has a few nice fluff feel good pieces, you however sound like my mother in law
Yahoo Connected Life, says its mobile division has introduced it as “your starting point for the internet, not just the mobile internet. The way Apple is growing.
For God’s sake, its just two words used to express the idea that you can customize your content.
It’s not even the name of the product they’re offering.
Trying to argue that the use of “my” as a prefix is derivative and shows lack of imagination – and that this is even a valid criticism – seems like an absolute joke when you try to contrast it with a company that for the last decade has raped the “i” prefix for all its worth in some of the most unoriginal names that have ever been embraced by anyone as “creative”.
Writing an article like this makes you seem like an Applehead who sits at home taking notes every time Jobs makes a witty remark about the competition at a keynote.
Or maybe just a tool. Or maybe both.
And @Moe Glitz
The best mobile app platform was not developed by Apple. It was developed by the creative folks that learned to hack the platform early on and actually deliver the features that Apple had failed to bring to fruition. It was only after the serious development of Jailbreaking that Apple was able to commercialize app creation.
Even now their approval system is the bane of all developers, and they’re being criticized left and right for their stubbornness over proprietary software.
It took a community of thousands to unlock the inherent versatility of the platform derived from OSX. They couldn’t even do it for their own software.
That says something about the HypeHeads in Cupertino.
Eh… don’t really care what they call it… “my” or not. The entire thing is a lame idea anyway.
This is nothing more than a Yahoo/AOL/MSN-type of portal for mobile… and it is entirely unnecessary!
The geniuses at Yahoo are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. The iPhone and Blackberry already offer a portal to the information on the Internet… It’s called the Home Screen!
If I want to check my email, I select the Email icon on the phone’s home screen. If I want maps, I select the Maps icon. If I want stocks, I select the Stocks icon. This works wonderfully already.
Yet, Yahoo is trying to provide their own environment for all this. So, let me get this straight… if I want Maps, you want me to select the Yahoo oneConnect app icon on the phone home screen, wait for that to launch, and then browse to the Maps icon in the Yahoo app and select that and then wait for the Yahoo maps screen to come up within that?
Are you out of your freaking mind?
Just create a separate iPhone or Blackberry app for each service you offer and let the user add those to their phone’s home screen if they find them useful. We don’t need your “container” app trying to provide a secondary home screen for all of your apps. It takes twice as long to do anything!