FutureMark To Change Name, Brand and Website towards UL

#5537109

Fox2232

2018-04-12 16:54

UltraLame "name"?

#5537110

Koniakki

2018-04-12 16:54

"benchmarks.ul.com"? Shady AF! 😱

#5537120

Srsbsns

2018-04-12 17:13

This doesn't make any sense. When you have a company with a poor/unknown reputation and you buy a company with brand recognition you don't just throw that away. This seems more like somebody looking to get rid of the competition. Do we know who this UL is financially connected to?

#5537122

Romulus_ut3

2018-04-12 17:16

This is tragic to say the least. At least we'll be making fun of the name "Underwrites Laboratories" as Undie Liberators. 😀 So there's that.

#5537123

Denial

2018-04-12 17:17

Srsbsns:

This doesn't make any sense. When you have a company with a poor/unknown reputation and you buy a company with brand recognition you don't just throw that away. This seems more like somebody looking to get rid of the competition. Do we know who this UL is financially connected to?

Lol.. UL has been around for literally a hundred years (founded in 1894). It's stamp is on a bunch of stuff here in the US. In terms of recognition I'd say UL is far more recognized.. just not in the software space. Quote from their site:

UL is a global leader in testing, inspection, certification, auditing and validation. The UL Mark is the single most accepted Certification Mark in the United States, appearing on 22 billion products annually.

Idk whether the name decision was good for marketing or not but I just find it amusing how little people know who they are given how many products they certify - apparently they are active in over 100 countries as well. As a kid I always used to wonder what all the stamps were on the bottom of various products, UL was almost always there.

#5537131

Kaarme

2018-04-12 17:46

I know what LU is, it's a huge cookie manufacturer, but I've never heard of any UL. I guess the UL folks think it's time to change their incognito status, and using Futuremark as a sacrifice is an efficient way to do it.

#5537133

Embra

2018-04-12 18:07

Most anything USA made will carry the UL mark.

#5537138

Srsbsns

2018-04-12 18:17

Denial:

Lol.. UL has been around for literally a hundred years (founded in 1894). It's stamp is on a bunch of stuff here in the US. In terms of recognition I'd say UL is far more recognized.. just not in the software space. Quote from their site: Idk whether the name decision was good for marketing or not but I just find it amusing how little people know who they are given how many products they certify - apparently they are active in over 100 countries as well. As a kid I always used to wonder what all the stamps were on the bottom of various products, UL was almost always there.

Okay I was not aware it was that UL. Still though its a strange move.

#5537144

spectatorx

2018-04-12 18:40

Company is named UL, benchmarks now will be renamed to LI.

#5537190

wavetrex

2018-04-12 21:26

Denial:

apparently they are active in over 100 countries as well

In Europe that stamp is "CE" (and there are others like TÜV in Germany) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Conformit%C3%A9_Europ%C3%A9enne_%28logo%29.svg/200px-Conformit%C3%A9_Europ%C3%A9enne_%28logo%29.svg.png And it is why probably nobody around here ever heard of UL. Not everyone lives on the same side of the pond ;-)

#5537192

Denial

2018-04-12 21:31

wavetrex:

In Europe that stamp is "CE" (and there are others like TÜV in Germany) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Conformit%C3%A9_Europ%C3%A9enne_%28logo%29.svg/200px-Conformit%C3%A9_Europ%C3%A9enne_%28logo%29.svg.png And it is why probably nobody around here ever heard of UL. Not everyone lives on the same side of the pond ;-)

Ya I know it's not ubiquitous but it just surprised me how few people heard of UL - people were talking about it over on reddit as well. Apparently UL uses different markings for the EU: https://www.ul.com/marks/ul-listing-and-classification-marks/appearance-and-significance/marks-for-europe/ Maybe you've seen some of those but didn't necessarily know it was UL?

#5537197

Fox2232

2018-04-12 21:37

Denial:

Ya I know it's not ubiquitous but it just surprised me how few people heard of UL - people were talking about it over on reddit as well. Apparently UL uses different markings for the EU: https://www.ul.com/marks/ul-listing-and-classification-marks/appearance-and-significance/marks-for-europe/ Maybe you've seen some of those but didn't necessarily know it was UL?

Only one from that list I know is: https://www.ul.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ul_markshub_europe_UL_GS-Mark.gif That UL there is usually unreadable and looks like weird VL/YL. Not that it matters, I still see no good reason for changing established brand name. I simply do not like way it will look.

#5537198

allesclar

2018-04-12 21:39

oh well, was good while it lasted.

#5537203

user1

2018-04-12 21:42

This is a mistake imo, Futuremark is a better brand, rather backwards to buy a company that has built a well known brand, only to discard it.

#5537216

droopy_ro

2018-04-12 22:20

Made in China > UL.

#5537226

Kaarme

2018-04-12 23:10

My Xbox 360 controller has that UL marking. Now I've seen it! The D marking from that web site is far more common. The most trustworthy is of course FI, unrelated to UL.

#5537250

wavetrex

2018-04-13 01:54

Denial:

https://www.ul.com/marks/ul-listing-and-classification-marks/appearance-and-significance/marks-for-europe/ Maybe you've seen some of those but didn't necessarily know it was UL?

Seen the (D) mark, seen GS (but the little "UL" in the corner is too small to be noticed). In both cases it's almost impossible to know who they belong to, unless you start digging for it. It's just a "D" after all, what's so special about it ? Anyway, back to the subject... sorry to see FutureMark go away into the darnkess... R.I.P. MadOnion -> FutureMark

#5537253

sykozis

2018-04-13 02:38

How many of you actually remember when 3DMark and PCMark were produced by MadOnion?? The change from MadOnion to Futuremark wasn't an issue, so why would changing from Futuremark to UL be a problem? The products will still be named 3DMark and PCMark, respectively. As long as the product names remain the same, people will still recognize them and use them like they have for the last 2 decades.

#5537271

Size_Mick

2018-04-13 05:23

On April 23, we will close futuremark.com. All future visits will be redirected to the equivalent page on benchmarks.ul.com.

I guess that means all my old benchmarks will be deleted. Maybe I should take some screenshots for posterity.

#5537277

0blivious

2018-04-13 06:31

I'm not seeing the issue here. As to the companies "prestige"? If I were to ask the next 100 people I see if they've heard of "Futuremark", I guarantee none of them would have. On the flip side, "UL" markings are on nearly every electronic device in the US, so I suspect at least a few will know what that is.