"Singletons" serve as a way to make strict OO people not feel wrong for using globals. They saw at university globals are bad, though they don't exactly understand why or how, and in what cases would you still use them. They came up with something overly complicated (in the purest OO fashion) that does the same, but also serves as a buzzword so they can pretend they're knowledgeable professionals and their managers think it's a good thing.