Apple died until is launched a new mac with round edges and see through plastic painted a shade of pastel crap. It was no more technically advanced. People were simply paying for brand coolness. Apple also made the iPhone off the back of white headphones that gave people a way to link themselves to cool brand identity when they purchased an iPod.
Apple is all about making products look good and giving users a way to associate with that cool by just buying their stuff. It did use to have innovation inside too, but it really took existing ideas and made them look better and gave them better form factor.
There is no reason for a polo shirt to cost over $100 when its cost of production is less than $3. People spend the extra $93 on a logo that gives them a brand association.
Branding is everything and nothing. Get it right and you end up with everything, get it wrong and you end up with nothing.
There is no reason for Litecoin to exist. It does so because it calls itself silver to bitcoin's gold.
I'm not staked on the idea of darkcoin branding. It is important, but Darksend is the term that everyone will be using. That needs to be right.
A second coin? Who knows. But why not make it extra hard for a clone to set-up by beating them to the punch? We can have our own bitcoin / litecoin thing going on. That would make cheap headlines and extra column inches. It would need to be handled correctly to avoid diluting the existing message. But an alt-coin with a stock split kind of thing to deter potential clones? Hmm.
EDIT : Fcuk it....we can airdrop a 50% premine to existing darkcoin holders after 6 months of darksend launch and and push up the price of darkcoin in the meantime
I don't give a fuck what the coin is called. It is what it is.
Your example about Apple points out one valid thing, brands can evolve. DarkCoin isn't even a brand, it's an unproven technology still at this point. I believe it will work as outlined by Evan, but that alone won't put it over the top. It won't be the fucking logo either.
The point here is, take a moment and google Zercoin. Look at the media they've gotten. Look at the keywords you see when you read the articles. Now a month or more ago, people donated to a "marketing" fund and there should be expectations of something happening other than your typical crapcoin "bounties". All supporters of the coin should ask, has anything really been done? Those guys have gotten attention either speaking to the media
There were discussions of some very essential and basic steps that could be taken to get the coin elevated to start to be noticed outside the world of BitCoinTalk. These means media outreach, speaking at crypto events, etc.
I see no new articles, no upcoming appearances or much in the way of discussions outside of this naming and branding stuff that is nothing more than going after the lowest hanging fruit. By this point, to be honest, there should be at least a handful of articles about DarkCoin on the front page.
Whatever, aside from Evan and Anonymint, reading this thread makes me want to sell.