"Don't ascribe to malfeasance that which can be otherwise explained by incompetence" - Napoleon.
Having worked in this area I would say it's simply a matter of zero product strategy, not some dark pattern. And I'm not sure I agree with the confusion bit though you could be right, I don't think so. Confusion is death to a sales funnel.
Here's a product, oh, let's make a variation, oh, another variation with this cool new thing our M&A team bought, oops, power regs mean in that other country we need this - so let's make another model. But Microsoft wants a specific hardware version for their OS, so 10 more version. Hey have you seen this new stylus (!?) Marketing says 10% of Millennial want them, let's tweak the screen and make 5 more models with that.
Basically, there's no product strategy.
The 'web site' is basically just taking orders from Product, and simply 'doing their job' by organizing it in some way ... which may include some douchy designers view on how it ought to be displayed.
Then Marketing Ops posts some vanity metrics and voila.
Someone with a lot of power has to go in there and change that, and otherwise, it won't happen.
If the culture is not there from the start, or from the top, it won't happen.
I'm very familiar with internal politics/chaos resulting in an explosion of models... ;)
But the thing is: if this were hugely detrimental to the bottom line, it would get fixed. But it's not. To the contrary, it actually improves the bottom line, even if it wasn't designed to do so. So other things get fixed, but not this.
And if I'm shopping for a new <insert superfluous consumer item here> then sure, confusion is death to a sales funnel because I can just not buy. But if I need a new laptop and can't afford Apple, then I've got 3-5 brands to choose from and their websites/models are equally confusing...
...and so I probably wind up spending more money that I needed and the companies come out winners.
BUT... if another company comes along and goes after the value market with a simple-to-understand lineup, where the business model is massive, massive volume of a tiny number of models? And gains consumer trust? Kind of like Casper did with mattresses, another impossible-to-understand market? Or Warby Parker with glasses, where incumbents were waaay overpriced? Well then there's a ton of money to be made, my friend. Indeed, I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet.
The company I worked at didn't 'fix it' - they went out of business.
It would take an entire strategic overhaul to fix it - which is why these things keep happening.
I would take product line focus, brand communications, focused online retailing etc. etc.. That's hard to do most companies are incapable.
You'd be surprised at how inefficient so many operations are.
Who's going to put their hand up and say that it's broken? Or that they could fix it? Who's going to believe them? Does the company have the leadership and ability to even try an experiment? How would that work?
All of that takes thoughtful leadership across a few groups, which is sadly rare.
I think Amazon is a great example - there's so much clunkiness in their UI that I feel pretty confident some optimizations could be made. But it doesn't seem to compute in the way they roll their ops.
They could just ask for advice to whoever makes websites for semiconductor manufacturers and/or sellers: there's surely a lot of corporate blurbs in there but in a few clicks you also get to an easy to navigate matrix of products with filters to find exactly the needed part. It would become trivial for example to find a product with no less than x GB of RAM,SSD, that exact processor, x cells battery, xy sized screen, available in stock now etc. then sort the list by pricing.
Go on Amazon, Newegg, B&H, eBay, or other higher quality computer retailers as an individual shopper and you will probably have a better experience buying any of the brands mentioned in the parent article. It might even be easier to buy direct from the manufacturer on eBay than it would be to use their own website and it's probably easier to get a Paypal refund than a refund through the manufacturer's own website.
One reason why Apple has had such incredible success in capturing market share is because they focused on creating a better direct to consumer experience. That is also why Dell had some great success when Apple stumbled in the late 1990s. They had an awesome eCommerce experience and great technical support.
* https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/clearanc...
* https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished
As a consumer, I greatly appreciate knowing that I'm getting a deal on last year's model rather than being tricked into said deal.
That could be true, but I also wonder how many people look at the weird bazaar that is the average website and then throw up their hands and buy Apple instead. Less hassle, etc.
Anecdotally, most of my family doesn't have Apple money, so they send me Amazon and Best Buy links asking if a low-end Windows machine is worth the $250.
Hurray for my new procrastination tool!
I observed many times how even below-middle-class people around here in Eastern Europe could muster the money for a MacBook or a high-end iPhone with help from relatives or local short-term money lenders. (Sometimes from their boss as well -- many employers are happy to deduct 10-20% of your salary for 4-8 months until you repay the device.)
Also what you said about service is something that much of the tech crowd here in HN seems to severely underestimate. Even I as a programmer and a few other hardware guys I know appreciate a semi-informed employee who comes to us and answers intelligently any questions we ask them. Those that don't try and swindle us usually get our money.
I have Apple money, I bought a Thinkpad.
I do own two apple devices (ipad mini 2 and this years iPad with a pencil), excellent devices but I like Linux too much for day to day work.
Rather: If you have Apple money, you buy a ThinkPad (either for the performance/value or as a status symbol). :-)
Try to find an answer if your TP has world-wide support. You can't. It needs IWS International Warranty Service. TPs have that by default, people say, but during checkout it will tell you IWS is not applicable (because included? the IWS model number list will tell you, but do you have the correct model number during checkout?)
/rant
Given the number of configurable options across the product line for processors, memory, hard drives, screens, etc., there must be thousands of possible combinations.
I assume many laptops across all of the series are available with 13-inch screens, so the name of the "13 series" is particularly confusing.
http://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_A485?M=20MU...
And they'd go somewhere and get quotes? What's the process?
Is there something similar for other brands?
The X280 still has a 1366x768 display option.
For T480s, you need to figure out if you have 8GB RAM or 4GB soldered + 4GB. Even more stupid, the latter option comes more expensive.
The configuration page lists the options like that:
8GB (4GB soldered + 4GB)
8GB
For me that implies the 8GB are configurable. What the fuck.
However, they are hampered by a confusing product selection (as mentioned in the article), marketing people who want to make sure their preferred items are prominently placed, tight timelines that don't allow for user testing, or legacy tech that restricts design options.
I'd say Apple's product lineup is no less convoluted.
Sure, the Apple site looks nicer, but the product lineup today is still pretty convoluted and it isn't easy to determine which is the 'right' option for you [1].
It's difficult at first glance to work out why the £949 MacBook Air would come with a 1.8 dual core, and the 'New' 13-inch would come with a 1.6 as standard.
I think everyone should go to three categories: 13 inch laptops in good, better and best. Have a comparison chart that clearly shows the differences. Do not make you hunt to see the differences.
Then if you're making special models for say WalMart or Best Buy affix a letter code and then don't make it available through normal navigation. If I search for it on their site by entering the model number I can find it. Might even say something like 'as seen in Best Buy'.
Now this would result in fewer individual models and the absolute sales yield might drop temporarily. But by concentrating on customer satisfaction over time people would recommend them higher and their sales would increase.
One last thing - every single manufacturer in the checkout should have an option that says for $50 extra we won't load all the garbage you have to delete when you first start using the machine.
If the site can guide you to last year's model without you realizing, then they profit. If it isn't easy to discover there's a similar laptop for the same price but a faster processor, then they profit.
A lot of consumers will give up trying to understand, and simply pick a more (overly) expensive one because it'll "have to" be good if it's that expensive.
This effectively allows manufacturers to achieve price discrimination: those who don't have time to research for hours will pay more, those who really don't have money will take the time and figure out the best deal in the end. (It's the same way grocery store coupons allow those who really need to save costs pay less, as long as they'll go to the effort of clipping.)
So why doesn't Apple do this?
Because Apple is by-definition high end. They're not going after bargain hunters, so they can afford a simple, cleaner site where everything is clear and comparable. They don't need to do price discrimination as much. (Obviously they still do though, it's just by charging way more for upgrades, like maximum-sized-storage iPhones and MacBooks.)