Comment by closeparen

4 years ago

The PC laptop manufacturers have worked around this for decades by selling so many different short-lived model numbers that you can rarely find information about the specific models for sale at a given moment.

6 comments

closeparen

Reply
kevincox  4 years ago

This does mitigate the benefit. But it still provides solid ground for a trustworthy manufacture to step in and break the trend.

Right now if a trustworthy manufacture kept the same hardware for an extended period of time they would not be noticed, and no one could easily tell. Because many manufacturers are swapping components with the same model number it is poisoning the well for everyone. If the law forced model number changes then you could see that there are 20 good reviews for this exact model number and all of the other drives only have reviews for different model numbers. All of a sudden that constant model number is a valuable differentiator for a careful consumer.

renewiltord  4 years ago

True. It’s the Gish Gallop of model numbering. Fortunately, it is the preserve of the crap brands. It’s sort of like seeing “in exchange for a free product, I wrote this honest and unbiased review”. Bam! Shitty product marker! Asus GL502V vs Asus GU762UV? Easy, neither. They’re clearly both shit or they wouldn’t try to hide in the herd.

  • infogulch  4 years ago

    I agree that long model numbers can be used to obscure a product, but a wide product line with small variations between products sensibly encoded in the model number isn't necessarily bad for the consumer. MikroTik switches and routers have long model numbers but segments of it are interpretable once you get to know them, and the model number is also the name of the product with a discoverable product page that describes its features in detail.

    Don't throw the "meaningful long model numbers"-baby out with the "intentionally opaque model numbers"-bathwater.

  • gruez  4 years ago

    >Shitty product marker! Asus GL502V vs Asus GU762UV? Easy, neither. They’re clearly both shit or they wouldn’t try to hide in the herd.

    Is this based on empirical evidence or something? My sample size isn't very big, but I haven't really noticed any correlation between this practice and whether the product is crappy. I just chalked this up to manufacturers colluding with retailers to stop price matches, rather than because "clearly both shit or they wouldn’t try to hide in the herd".