How Do You Name A Product That's Perpetually Evolving?-00-4474

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The language used (taken for granted by those in the know) can exclude and confuse others. And in some cases a term can become dated and cease to make sense to those outside the industry club.

CPU Holder is the name that Colebrook Bosson Saunders coined and stuck with to describe their range of products that suspend a computer underneath the desk or raised off the floor. Is this misleading? After all, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer programme. The term has been used in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s, but is it commonly understood today? The CPU might be the primary component housed within the computer tower or case but it is not wholly accurate to use the terms CPU and computer tower interchangeably. Indeed from 2004 Apple's iMac computers did away with a tower all together: housing the CPU within the screen itself. Such advances render the term nonsensical.

Perhaps a more accurate description would be Computer Cradle which seems to immediately infer the function of the product: to cradle the computer ...
... under a desk in a safe and protective way. Although, making it less clear which part of the computer is being cradled? Computer Holder is even more ambiguous, and can bring to mind a variety of products from Laptop Stands to a Wall Mounted PC. PC Under Desk Mount seems a more precise description until we consider that the term PC (Personal Computer), in many minds, excludes any Apple Mac computers: for years the concept of the PC versus the Mac has been engrained in our minds. Where a Mac computer has a tower a computer cradle can be used; the inclusion of the PC preface infers it cannot.

Computer Tower Holder makes sense to me (having grown up with the early computers of the 80's and 90's), but would a younger generation have much idea of what is meant by this out-dated description? Technology has rapidly progressed and become increasingly miniaturised until the computer tower looks less like a tower and more like a neat case which can morph into a wide array of forms.

It is important to remember that these products (computer storage systems) are still in their infancy so the words we use to describe them are ever-changing and evolving regularly. Add to that the fact that the products that they support (computers) are continually developing too and the task of creating a name that will be understood by all and future-proofed becomes a pretty challenging one.

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Whether you refer to CPU holders as either a http://www.colebrookbossonsaunders.com/products/cpu-support.htm or a http://www.colebrookbossonsaunders.com/sectors/office/Montague-2.htm the award winning designers Colebrook Bosson Saunders can assist. As leading designers and manufacturers of ergonomic office furniture they have a range which will accomodate most office needs.