X

With iPhone X, what does Samsung call its next phones?

Commentary: The Apple unveiling creates an interesting naming dilemma for Samsung.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


apple-091217-iphone-x-3986
Enlarge Image
apple-091217-iphone-x-3986

What comes after X?

James Martin/CNET

Everything was so ordered before.

Now, having launched its Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 , along comes Apple to, um, disrupt things.

It couldn't stick to convention, could it? Instead, it had to be iPhone X . Pronounced "ten."

So what's Samsung supposed to do? 

If it calls its next Galaxy phones S9 and Note 9, Samsung may create an inferiority complex among its users. It'll be as if they've been kept behind a year at school. 

It's hard to be a 9 when your friends are already 10s. Or, even more special, Xs.

Samsung could, of course, decide that its next phones are simply 11s. Just because. Just because it's more than 10.

Watch this: 6 best iPhone X features

Another approach, though, might be to find more inventive names. 

This is something Samsung's customers could encourage it to do now. I'll start you off, with all the lack of seriousness I can muster. The most obvious, surely, is for Samsung to follow Apple's X with the Samsung Galaxy Y. (Pronounced "Why?")

It could, though, become more wildly creative. How about next year the company launches the Samsung Galaxy Moonshot and the Samsung Galaxy High Note? 

Or perhaps they could name their phones after stars in vast, glorious sponsorship deals. Who wouldn't want a Samsung Galaxy Brad Pitt? Or a Samsung Galaxy Note Jennifer Lawrence.

There's also the opportunity to go all Prince on the whole thing and name your phones with weird symbols. Everyone would want to know how to pronounce it, and Samsung could keep the correct version a complete mystery.

Samsung didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

This is, though, surely an opportunity to break away from the norms to which we've become tied. Of course, Samsung could just play the daring poker player's hand and decide that its next phone is the Samsung Galaxy S100. 

What would Apple do then? 

Technically Incorrect: Bringing you a fresh and irreverent take on tech.

Special ReportsCNET's in-depth features in one place.