These guys just can not figure out a branding/marketing scheme that won't require overexplaining each time to figure out, and confusion by the consumer. What is a "Surface" if it's really 2 different things, with very similar names, that do completely different things and run incompatible operating systems?
They want to tell us that "this doesn't matter to consumers", but this is just another way of saying "we're only interested in actually marketing to consumers that can't tell the difference".
It's interesting to see Apple doing the opposite these days. In the consumer facing keynote the meticulously separate Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and TV with the capabilities and apps that run on each.
Then they have their dev keynote where they explain how these apps are really all based on shared technology and can all be made using the same new frameworks and then released to each app store for users.
Apple's strategy is great for consumers, IT departments, and (I assume) developers in that way. I can use the same device management tools to control a corporate Macbook, Apple TV, or iPad. The differences in their product line (iPad vs iPad Pro, Macbook vs Macbook Pro, etc) all have a common denominator where you're rarely having one of those conversations where someone realizes "Oh I asked for X but procurement dept got me a 2X which is completely incompatible".
Someone posted a rant here[1] that I think about often, about Microsoft's muddying the waters of Skype, Skype for Business, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Windows 10, Windows 10 N, which are all different, incompatible, broken products that you would think fit together but truly don't. It's frustrating as both a consumer and an IT admin, and diminishes my faith in anything they do on this side of the market.
ive given apple credit for the new iphone naming scheme, but the iphone x, xs, xr, x max, xs max naming conventions absolutely appear designed to confuse. i dont think air, nothing, pro are all that great either, with no suffix being the standard lowest end of the three. +, pro, max, etc all get used interchangeablyish. sometimes its Apple, sometimes its i (legal probably drove this dichotomy.)
How about if there was a Jeep Wrangler that's actually a motorcycle but still referred to as a Wrangler, and the 4-wheeled Jeep Wrangler gets rebadged as the WranglerQuadro but only for 2 years, then they have a ATV just called "Quadro by Jeep" (not to be confused with the Jeep 4Quadro California Emissions Comploant Edition) that's more like a Microsoft branding exercise.
