Sorry, but trying to say that Microsoft satisfies the consistency criteria because of its behaviour over the last 18 months is absurd. 18 months is nothing - the timespans that matter in this game are more like 18 years.
You can't compare MS to Apple regarding those products on the basis that you believe an 18 year time-span is what matters in this game. Because the ipod, the iphone, the ipad and the macbook air aren't even 10 years-old.
But I agree with you on your main point: MS is highly inconsistent regarding its branding and that's a problem for consumer identification and reliance perception.
The 18 year figure was just illustrative of the fact that I thought he was an order of magnitude off. I didn't mean that a company needs to remain consistent for 18 years exactly - but it is years of consistency that count, the more the better.
As far as Apple's performance - the iPod range is 12 years old at this point. Apple has been producing consistently branded Macbooks since 2006, this line is clearly continuous with the iBooks which go back to 1999. The iPhone range is 6 years old at this point. Consumer OS X is 12 years old - they've only just dropped the cat name motif, and Mavericks is still recognisably a progression from 10.0. Etc.
Comments
You can't compare MS to Apple regarding those products on the basis that you believe an 18 year time-span is what matters in this game. Because the ipod, the iphone, the ipad and the macbook air aren't even 10 years-old.
But I agree with you on your main point: MS is highly inconsistent regarding its branding and that's a problem for consumer identification and reliance perception.
The 18 year figure was just illustrative of the fact that I thought he was an order of magnitude off. I didn't mean that a company needs to remain consistent for 18 years exactly - but it is years of consistency that count, the more the better.
As far as Apple's performance - the iPod range is 12 years old at this point. Apple has been producing consistently branded Macbooks since 2006, this line is clearly continuous with the iBooks which go back to 1999. The iPhone range is 6 years old at this point. Consumer OS X is 12 years old - they've only just dropped the cat name motif, and Mavericks is still recognisably a progression from 10.0. Etc.