I don't see a problem with "bit". The only objection I've seen is that it could be confused with informational bits, but those very rarely come up in the same context. British use pound for both currency and weight, and that doesn't seem to be a problem. I think bits is a very marketable name with a real chance to catch on.
mBTC and uBTC are very easy to understand. Or do you think people using Bitcoin dont have idea what SI unit prefixes are ?
I don't think that the change aims the super geeks that are among the early adopters. Those of course are familiar with those prefixes. The change is discussed with mass adoption being the big picture,
I am used to the SI symbols, and wondered if it would cause confusion as well. However, I just noticed the other day that reddit tips are displayed in mBTC or uBTC (depending on amount and/or exchange rate, I'm not exactly sure). In any case, I personally found it immediately obvious and actually quite natural. Using the term "millibitcoins" and "microbitcoins" in conversation may be a bit awkward, but written down I don't think mBTC or uBTC is a problems.
Maybe we could use "microcoins" instead? I've seen rpetiela using "minicoins" for a while now and, while not technically correct (should be "millicoins") it does flow much better.
That being said, I think people should be using uBTC as the base unit at this point; 1000 uBTC per dollar is a reasonable exchange rate to use when quoting prices.
