Re:Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
by da_chicken on Monday April 22, 2019 @11:36PM
(#19725385)
It doesn't really matter if it is a regional thing. The point is not that the name takes over. That's just a side effect that sometimes happens. The point is that the product that came second and copied the first now dominates the market.
How about the IBM PC? Plenty of home computers existed prior to the PC, but today 8086 code dominates at all levels of computing.
How about Google's search, or Google Maps? AltaVista and MapQuest came first.
You mention Nintendo and PlayStation, but Atari was before both of those!
How about Facebook instead of MySpace?
The point is that saying that the person who comes along and copies you will do it worse because they don't understand it is often wrong.
Re:Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
by jmb12686 on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @12:35AM
(#19725643)
Where I grew up (borderline Midwest, generally associated with the South), it is common to ask “What kind of Coke would you like?” And an acceptable answer to said question could be “Mountain Dew”, “Dr Pepper”, or any competing soda brand. After I moved away from my hometown (though still in the general midwestern region) I found it fascinating how hyper local the nomenclature for soda can be (or rather “pop” or “coke” depending on where you live).
I've never heard someone use Apple trademarks as generic terms. The generic term people use for a touchscreen smartphone is...a smartphone. Likewise, a generic term for a tablet is "tablet". I've never heard someone use "iPhone" to refer to all smartphones or "iPad" to refer to all tablets.
Though as a kid, I know my parents would say to "put away the Nintendo" when it was the PlayStation stuff that was all spread out on the floor.