On Semiconductor is now onsemi

[schmitt trigger]

On Semiconductor is now onsemi  Yes, in all lowercase letters.

My first reaction? WTF! 

Browsing its website it is obvious that the portfolio has been pare down. Significantly.
That strategy I totally get. They want to focus on higher profit margin devices, which commodity items definitely aren’t.
So. That is the reason to re-invent your identity, to rename your previous name all in lowercase?

To me this the semiconductor company formerly known as Motorola: SCFKAM.

[Cerebus]

Maybe the new head of marketing is an ee cummings fan?

[ataradov]

The logo looks like one of a million startups that make smart water bottles of other BS like that.

[sleemanj]

Everybody already shortened them to onsemi and their domain name was onsemi.com, so kinda makes sense to make that the actual name of the company.

[ataradov]

Yes, but all lower case? ON Semi would fine. But I guess they felt it was not enough of a change.

It will be awkward as hell to write documents where the name of the company goes first in a sentence. It will forever feel like something is missing.

[amyk]

The logo looks like one of a million startups that make smart water bottles of other BS like that.

But at least it doesn't say NO when you flip it upside-down...

[Circlotron]

Can you imagine Rolls Royce changing their name to something people have never heard of?
If you have a good name you don’t want to change it.
Unless you were Hewlett-Packard of course...   

[ejeffrey]

Yes, but all lower case? ON Semi would fine. But I guess they felt it was not enough of a change.

It will be awkward as hell to write documents where the name of the company goes first in a sentence. It will forever feel like something is missing.

Feel free to capitalize it as needed.  For instance the associated press recommends generally following the companies spelling but give considerable latitude to ignore cutesy capitalizations and punctuation if it looks awkward.      It's not your job to promote their logo.

[james_s]

I struggle to think of a corporate rebranding that didn't make me roll my eyes. Even more so since they are usually announced with such fanfare, it's hard to believe that there are people on the payroll who actually think changing an established brand to make it fresh or that coming up with gushing corporate wank actually impresses the people who buy the products. Marketers exist in a different reality than engineers.

[ANTALIFE]

meh, companies go through rebranding all the time. As long as they continue making good IC's then I don't think it's worth complaining

[Cerebus]

If you'd been inside a company while it was going through one of these rebrandings you might not say that. The amount of time, money and energy that gets wasted on them that would be better directed into, ooh I don't know - making sure that you don't run out of product, is colossal. It's also an indicator that there are idiots in charge, which is never a good sign if the continued smooth operation of the company in question is something that might affect you.

[magic]

Wait until the first page of every datasheet contains nothing but their new logo and a notice about name change

Kinda like they did to Fairchild a few years ago

LMAO, the first victims are here, they really did it
https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/ne5532-d.pdf

Come on guys, you can do better. This one is still waiting
https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/2n3904-d.pdf

[Cerebus]

Wait until the first page of every datasheet contains nothing but their new logo and a notice about name change

Kinda like they did to Fairchild a few years ago

OFFS, that really annoyed me with the Fairchild data sheets, and now they're doing it to their own.

Going back to my previous posting, just how much money is being wasted making sure that every datasheet gets updated. Then there will have been the hours and hours in meetings involving all the most valuable and most expensive people in the company (almost always the two are mutually exclusive) where they decided if the former Fairchild datasheets get one or two preface pages. Arrrggggghhhhhh ...

[tom66]

As a younger professional engineer, the result of this branding change has meant I have increased the number of onsemi™ parts used in my designs from zero to ten, which represents an infinity% increase in design wins.  The net result is that infinitely more parts will be purchased and so therefore the $100mn spent on the rebrand, marketing wa ...er, I mean consultants, updated datasheets, and frustrated greybeard engineers has been a net win.

[ataradov]

Wait until the first page of every datasheet contains nothing but their new logo and a notice about name change

Not only it is already happening, there are datasheets that have both new and Fairchild notice. Soon datasheets will have entire corporate history attached to them.

[langwadt]

I struggle to think of a corporate rebranding that didn't make me roll my eyes. Even more so since they are usually announced with such fanfare, it's hard to believe that there are people on the payroll who actually think changing an established brand to make it fresh or that coming up with gushing corporate wank actually impresses the people who buy the products. Marketers exist in a different reality than engineers.

you are probably not the intended audience. The numb-nuts at the stock-market that will run after anything "new" is

[Cerebus]

I struggle to think of a corporate rebranding that didn't make me roll my eyes. Even more so since they are usually announced with such fanfare, it's hard to believe that there are people on the payroll who actually think changing an established brand to make it fresh or that coming up with gushing corporate wank actually impresses the people who buy the products. Marketers exist in a different reality than engineers.

you are probably not the intended audience. The numb-nuts at the stock-market that will run after anything "new" is

I suspect that isn't the real audience. A few people inside a company that's rebranding might use that as an excuse, but the real audience is the instigators. They need to convince themselves that they are doing something. At least it is less destructive than any number of 'bright ideas' for changes in the company that they might have. It's surprising how much better companies work when the senior management don't do anything at all. Sometimes playing golf all day or going on junkets is the best thing they can do for the company.

[Tomorokoshi]

How about... two blue lines?

[langwadt]

I struggle to think of a corporate rebranding that didn't make me roll my eyes. Even more so since they are usually announced with such fanfare, it's hard to believe that there are people on the payroll who actually think changing an established brand to make it fresh or that coming up with gushing corporate wank actually impresses the people who buy the products. Marketers exist in a different reality than engineers.

you are probably not the intended audience. The numb-nuts at the stock-market that will run after anything "new" is

I suspect that isn't the real audience. A few people inside a company that's rebranding might use that as an excuse, but the real audience is the instigators. They need to convince themselves that they are doing something. At least it is less destructive than any number of 'bright ideas' for changes in the company that they might have. It's surprising how much better companies work when the senior management don't do anything at all. Sometimes playing golf all day or going on junkets is the best thing they can do for the company.

that  depend on whether you just want  a "boring" stable company that makes and sell stuff, or you want to make press releases create hype for investors and make bank on stock price ..

[schmitt trigger]

I think that is the ultimate reason.
Every thing else is just a smoke screen.

[TimNJ]

A bit perturbing to see a lowercase "onsemi" in Digikey search.

I don't mind the lowercase styling as part of the logo, but it seems that they truly want the formal name to be "onsemi", which is really awkward in writing because...you know...proper nouns are supposed to be capitalized.

[tszaboo]

At least it is not:
On Semiconductor is now ...
...
...
part of Analog Devices.

[magic]

Well, Analog is more into precision and exotic stuff...

Good news: there will never be "onsemi is now part of Texas Instruments".
Just look what happened to National

[mc172]

But at least it doesn't say NO when you flip it upside-down...

Surely that'd be !wǝsuo

[Circlotron]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

[Cerebus]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

Sorry we bothered you, your moral superiorness.

[ataradov]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

We can do two things at the same time. Learn to do the same and your life will be better for that.

[schmitt trigger]

Speaking out of perhaps nostalgia, the sad thing about what onsemi has become, is that at one point of time Motorola was a semiconductor powerhouse, which had the largest portfolio.

From a lowly 1N914 diode all the way to the 68xx microprocessor family.
Transistors galore, with several excellent RF types. Thyristors. Optoelectronics.
Every logic family under the sun. Dozens of analog blocks. Power conversion.

You name it, the Big-M had them.

[james_s]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

We can do two things at the same time. Learn to do the same and your life will be better for that.

That drives me absolutely nuts. Like I'm not allowed to be upset about something until all more serious problems in the world have been solved. People who pull that crap on me can piss off, I'm allowed to be annoyed by whatever I want. There's always going to be more serious problems going on somewhere, that doesn't make my problems invalid.

[SparkyFX]

I'm allowed to be annoyed by whatever I want. There's always going to be more serious problems going on somewhere, that doesn't make my problems invalid.

Yeah, sure, and it is obviously an emotional statement. It's just that decision-making out of such a mood is more likely skewed and leads to unreasonable actions. Agreed, an opinion in and of itself has no consequences, otoh the majority of the stock market seems to work based on their relatively uninformed opinion.

But that game can of course also be played backwards... as in a company renaming itself tries to gain something attached to the change. Internally they probably try to make it the headline of a restructuring, communicated outward by a name change, risking said effects on public opinion.

[NiHaoMike]

Can you imagine Rolls Royce changing their name to something people have never heard of?

Few hobbyists would even notice, let alone the general public. (Also, it was Pratt and Whitney that had two catastrophic engine failures on the same day, not Rolls Royce.)

[Cerebus]

Can you imagine Rolls Royce changing their name to something people have never heard of?

Few hobbyists would even notice, let alone the general public. (Also, it was Pratt and Whitney that had two catastrophic engine failures on the same day, not Rolls Royce.)

Erm, I think they would. Most people would look askance at a "Cockford-Ollie Phantom" or a "Cockford-Ollie Ghost" and would not want to change to using "The Cockford Ollie of ..." as a superlative (and subsequently get a letter from Cockford-Ollie's lawyers), well all except for one Canadian Francophone from BC.

[james_s]

Yeah, sure, and it is obviously an emotional statement. It's just that decision-making out of such a mood is more likely skewed and leads to unreasonable actions. Agreed, an opinion in and of itself has no consequences, otoh the majority of the stock market seems to work based on their relatively uninformed opinion.

Well I'm not going to stop buying their products because I think their new name/logo is stupid. I'm just going to roll my eyes and maybe vent a little about all the corporate stupidity and marketing wank that goes on. This is not major life decisions we're talking about here, sometimes it just feels good to complain about stuff.

[james_s]

Can you imagine Rolls Royce changing their name to something people have never heard of?

Few hobbyists would even notice, let alone the general public. (Also, it was Pratt and Whitney that had two catastrophic engine failures on the same day, not Rolls Royce.)

Rolls-Royce has also had engine failures, IIRC a 767 crashed years ago after both RR engines on the plane failed almost simultaneously due to ice crystals forming in the fuel-oil heat exchangers. Some GE CF6 engines suffered catastrophic failure of the fan disc, including the one leading to the crash of United 232. I don't think there is a company around that hasn't had at least a few catastrophic failures of their turbine engines, given the immense stresses the components operate under, the great complexity of the engines and the sheer number of them in operation at any given time I think it's remarkable just how dependable they are. A commercial pilot can go their whole career without ever having to shut down an engine in flight.

[Cerebus]

Rolls-Royce has also had engine failures,...

You know that you're in with a bunch of nerds engineers, when "Rolls-Royce" is synonymous with 'jet engine' not 'flash motorcar'. 

(Especially if someone subsequently pops up and says "Turbine engines actually.".)

[rsjsouza]

I don't like these branding / website changes as well (it also gives me the impression that marketing feels the need to show that is doing something) but, for starters, "On" was a very stupid name - not trademarkable and way too simple to carry any idea of what your company did.  Sure someone could have thought of that after all these years (even better: before they came public with it), so

Such change may indeed indicate a radical change on their product offerings, which can make easier to identify legacy from current products over the years - however, the amount of man hours inside the company that is invested in such changes is indeed massive. Oh well, hopefully us users won't suffer too much from it.

[james_s]

You know that you're in with a bunch of nerds engineers, when "Rolls-Royce" is synonymous with 'jet engine' not 'flash motorcar'. 

I think I've seen a Rolls-Royce car 2 or 3 times in my life. Rolls-Royce powered airliners fly over my house every day, I've ridden on a handful of them, and the WWII era Merlin V12 is one of my all time favorite machines. I definitely think aviation first when I hear "Rolls-Royce".

[Cerebus]

You know that you're in with a bunch of nerds engineers, when "Rolls-Royce" is synonymous with 'jet engine' not 'flash motorcar'. 

I think I've seen a Rolls-Royce car 2 or 3 times in my life. Rolls-Royce powered airliners fly over my house every day, I've ridden on a handful of them, and the WWII era Merlin V12 is one of my all time favorite machines. I definitely think aviation first when I hear "Rolls-Royce".

There's a commercial off-street car park in Brewer Street in Soho, central London. Business used to take me there on a regular basis making service calls where using public transport is impractical. It's a small car park, and it's very expensive (Currently £9 for 30 minutes, £60 for a day. I wasn't personally paying for it - ultimately the clients who chose to situate themselves in such a high rent district were.).

Every time whatever econ-o-box my then employer was entrusting me with was parked there it looked very out of place, what with all the  other parking space being taken up with Rolls Royces, Ferraris,  and the odd Porche or Masseratti.

[SiliconWizard]

I don't care much. I (and many of us) were already used to calling them "On semi". I admit I don't particularly like their new logo and their new web site, but we'll see what else it all changes.

What can be annoying with those name changes is having to modify your component databases. Depending on how their are designed, it can be little work, or a lot of it.

[magic]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

Excuse me, I hate everyone and complain about everything, every other day.
Also about the big problems of the world and their root cause, which is of course we all know who and what

[Tomorokoshi]

It says something strange about human nature that people are getting worked up about a minor name change while there are so many other far more consequential things going on in the world right now. It’s like we make an issue of things we think we can handle and shut out things that are too big.

The technical problem, which applies generally to branding changes along with invented names after mergers, is that now my Bill of Materials across various products over the years will have yet another unnecessary update that is needed because of this. In a few years the newbie, instead of asking, "Like, what's Freeescale?" or "Like, what's Motorola?" will now be asking, "Like, what's ON Semiconductor?" when old BOMs are encountered.

While I have problems with Texas Instruments for other reasons at least they've had the same name and logo for 60 years.

[Circlotron]

To put it in contemporary terms, Motorola now identifies as onsemi, and it is a hate crime for you to think otherwise.

[JPortici]

all more serious problems in the world

And don't forget, it's not you who get to decide which are more serious. it's always me. ME. ME. MEEEEEE.

[rfclown]

I was at Moto when On was split off. Later when the semiconductor sector was going to split (became Freescale), people were guessing as to what the new name would be. The best names I can remember were "Off" and "NoMoMoto"

[rsjsouza]

That is awesome!