Today at IFA, Samsung presented not only a slew of new devices, but a totally new brand that connected them all: Ativ. Difficult pronunciation aside (we’re pretty sure it rhymes with “Aleve”), it’s a smart move for the company. Along with the introduction of the Galaxy Camera, it’s a lot more cross-device integration and communication than we’re used to seeing from the Korean behemoth. But while the emperor has expressed interest in clothes, it remains mostly nude: Ativ is not a global brand. The Ativ Smart PC and Smart PC Pro are called the Series 5 Slate and Series 7 Slate in the US, and we can only assume the Ativ Windows RT tablet and Windows Phone 8 handset will have different, likely more verbose and inscrutable names if and when they come stateside.
Samsung should bring its Ativ brand to the US, but will it?
Samsung’s Ativ branding is apparently not coming to the US, and that’s a bad idea.
Samsung’s Ativ branding is apparently not coming to the US, and that’s a bad idea.
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
We’re confident the Series 5 and Series 7 Slate will be called Ativ when they arrive on store shelves, if only because doing so is such a simple and obviously good idea. It would be nonsensical for Samsung to forgo a new, unified, global brand in order to still have a device called the Series 5 on the market. Samsung clearly understands the power of these brands, as it demonstrated by strong-arming the Galaxy S III onto nearly every American carrier, but at least for now the company appears to have forgotten its own lesson.
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