Actually Apple used to be like all the rest before Steve Jobs came back. First thing he did was discontinue a lot of products, even entire categories like the Newton.

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.