Is Samsung going to drop the name 'Galaxy Note 6' for its new phablet? That's the intriguing prospect hinted at by South Korean's ETNews. It suggests that Samsung's 2016 version of its popular mobile device is already being called the 'Note 7' within Samsung.
Although there has been a huge amount of online press generated for the Galaxy Note 6, there's still three months until the expected launch of the new device. That's more than enough time for an alternate name to gain traction online, for Samsung's reasons for changing the number to be explained to the faithful, and to have the new name build up a prominent placing in search engines.
Asked to comment on the potential new name for the Note phablet, a spokesperson said that "Samsung does not comment on rumor or speculation."
The principle argument for the name change is simple. With Samsung pushing hard to promote the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge, at first glance the Note 6 would be seen as 'last year's model' because of the lower number. This discrepancy has been on show for many years, but this will be the first Galaxy Note launched under DJ Koh, the new head of the Mobile Division.
Koh has been smart how he plays Samsung's marketing cards. From the timing of reveals and the choice of special guests at the product launches, the South Korean company has been generating far more value and return from the 2016 marketing than in previous years. Ensuring that the new Galaxy Note can capture as much return from this global brand name investment would be another smart call.
It's not just the Galaxy S7 family which will influence the idea of a 'Note 6' being old. Assuming the dates stay as expected, one month after the Galaxy Note is revealed Apple will announce the presumptively named iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Pro. The iPhone 7 will face direct comparison to the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge, and the iPhone 7 Pro will get a match-up with the Note 6.
Six is old. Seven is heaven.
Samsung would not be the first tech company to skip numbers in its product sequencing for marketing reasons. One of the recent cases would be Microsoft, who went from Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 straight to Windows 10, bypassing 9. Palm's early PDA range jumped from the Palm III to the Palm V (as did Psion with the Series 3 range superseded by the Series 5 range). Even Apple skipped over the iPhone 2 to go to the iPhone 3G (although that did help market the speed of cellular data transfer the handset could achieve).
Success in 2016 for the flagship Galaxy devices will go a long way to stabilising Samsung financials. Last year's Galaxy S6 and Note 5 struggled to live up to their predecessors in terms of sales and impact on the ecosystem. The Galaxy S7 has start that process for Samsung's smartphone line, and the mobile division will be looking to do the same with the phablet. The potential addition of iris-based security and bringing the curved screen of the S7 Edge to the platform will help sell the message of innovation, while a bump up in the number emphasise that the Note 7 is the equal of the desirable Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
