A Rose is a Rose

Shakespeare once said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The meaning of this, of course, is that a name is just a name and it isn’t important. Well that seems to be no longer true. We have recently had two modern examples of how some people see names as being important.

The first case is the loss of the Lotus brand. IBM acquired Lotus many years ago but kept the name of Lotus for Notes and Domino and the Lotushere conference. Late is 2012 IBM changed their corporate mind and is dropping the Lotus name. I have wonderful memories of Lotus products over the years (I still use Organizer every single day of my life) and I will mis them.

The second name change is Research in Motion becoming Blackberry and this may actually be a good move. After all, Blackberry software and hardware really are the only products the former RIM made and the name change makes sense. The new BB10 phones they recently announced may or may not revive their brand and breath new life into the company. We’ll have to wait and see.