Proposal for standardizing Device Generation

[AlTech]

Hi, so I first thought of this when somebody mentioned in a thread that they had a Galaxy S2 or S3.

 

And it struck me that we have no real standardized way to determine what generation of device something is.

 

Problem: It can be hard to categorize devices from different generations

Solution: A Standard which can be applied to any type of Device.

Use Case: Discussion of devices including asking for support, troubleshooting issues or asking for advice.

 

So I'd like to make a proposal .

 

I've thought of a few things which are important to know in a generation of device:

• Year in which it's released
• Quarter in which it's released
• Price Category E.g. Budget, Mid Range or High End.
• Promised support for as long as the typical user is expected to own the device for.
• Type of Device

 

So here's my proposal:

• Year  of Release would consist of the last 2 digits of the year of it's release.
• Quarter would consist of a value of either A,B, C or D for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th quarter respectively. NOTE: Not financial quarter but Calendar quarter.
• Price category would be either B (budget), M (mid range) or H (High End).
• Promised Support would be denoted either N (Not promised) or P (promised).
• Type of Device would be either SE (smartphone), MT (Mobile OS Tablet), DP (Desktop PC), LP (Laptop), GC (Games Console) or OT (Other)

 

Format: [Year of Release][Quarter][Price Category][Promised Support][Type of Device]

 

E.g. My Surface Pro 4 would have a Device Generation Value of 15DHPLP .

 

My Lumia 650 would have a value of 16ABP17SE .

 

An Xbox One X bought today would have a value of 17AHPGC

 

So what do you guys think?
Are you guys gonna use this in your topics about devices?

 

Thanks for reading this really weird topic which I created . I hope you guys put this to use or give me feedback on it so I can improve it.

And as always, don't forget to subscribe.  

[Dreaper]

Sounds great but a little confusing 

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Dreaper said:

Sounds great but a little confusing 

Which parts should I change?

[STRMfrmXMN]

Nah man, I prefer the Titan... uhh shit, is is the XP or the Xp? Or the other Titan X? Ah, fuck it, we'll just call it the iPhone X.

[ARikozuM]

This is not helpful. This sounds like more work to implement and keep track of when a PC is inaccessible. 

[Dreaper]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Which parts should I change?

You shouldnt really change anything its just hard to memorize everything tho maybe try making it shorter?

[AlTech]

Just now, Dreaper said:

You shouldnt really change anything its just hard to memorize everything tho maybe try making it shorter?

I removed year of when it was purchased.

 

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

This is not helpful. This sounds like more work to implement and keep track of when a PC is inaccessible. 

Ummmmm K?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Should just do what the auto industry does and differentiate based on model year, model, and trim level. 

Can't wait for the 2019 Microsoft Surface Pro LX.  (for them Honda fans out there)

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Should just do what the auto industry does and differentiate based on model year, model, and trim level. 

Can't wait for the 2019 Microsoft Surface Pro LX.  (for them Honda fans out there)

ripperoni.

 

I guess that could be used but it sounds weird.

 

E.g.

 

2015 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 i7

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

ripperoni.

 

I guess that could be used but it sounds weird.

 

E.g.

 

2015 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 i7

I won't even include the 4 in the name. Just the name of the product and the model year. The model year itself should be enough to differentiate the generation. 

 

Ex. 2005-2011 Honda Civics are all eighth generation, 2011-2016 are all ninth generation, etc.

[BloodyWaters]

I’d need a chart to be able to decode that. 

[G27Racer_188]

I like the idea, but this implementation sounds like bunch of Acer monitor models (eg. Acer XB270HU bprz).

[Dylanc1500]

On the comment of something similar to cars. Honestly, they could do something similar to a vin number which details out all of the info on the product; make, model, year, trim, color, options, so on and so forth and it would also leave some digits for the manufacturer. Just food for thought.

[AlwaysFSX]

I was with you until about halfway through, where I had to break out a codex to figure out what generation my laptop was.

 

It's too much effort for what you get, imho. I think you could completely chuck out the quarter something released in, since most products are yearly anyways. I also don't think you would need to note what price bracket the object is in because well... you can determine that from the price. A $50 and a $500 phone are obviously on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to what you would consider for hardware performance and build quality. Which leads to the same logic of why would I need to know that a Galaxy S8 for example, is a smartphone, if I'm already looking up information about the Galaxy S8 smartphone?

 

Just my $.02. Year and support or length of support would be useful though. Something like 17/04 maybe? Product became available in 2017 and has four years of support. Alternatively you could do months of support for a wider range. 17/48.

 

Edit: Added slashes because I think it would make it easier to denote what's separate from what until a standard was actually used often enough that everyone in the know would know what it meant.

[Vantage9]

This has no meaning or use as far as I can tell.  What is the purpose of this?  I can't think of a single example where something like this would be worth the trouble of learning to decode it.

[Defunct Lizard]

Sounds like a great idea, but I think you could reform it to make it a little more simple.

 

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Dylanc1500 said:

On the comment of something similar to cars. Honestly, they could do something similar to a vin number which details out all of the info on the product; make, model, year, trim, color, options, so on and so forth. Just food for thought.

Country of Origin by the ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 code for that country

Product category

Product line
Model

Mfg. date (week in the year)

3 letter intial of the manufacturer

 

 

So a Samsung Galaxy S8+ made on the 30th week of 2017 would have a product code like this

KRSPGALS8P3017SAM

 

an iPhone 8 made on the 10th week of 2018 would have a product code like this
CNSPIP81018APP

 

KR - Country Code in ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 of the Country of Origin

SP - Product category

GAL- Product line

S8P - Model (kinda simplifying this one since there's not just one single S8+ model)

3017 - Week of manufacture in the year

SAM - Manufacturer 3 letters.

So it's a smartphone from Korea, it is from the Galaxy product line, the model is an S8+, it was made on the 30th week of 2017 and it was made by Samsung.