I’m looking at you specifically Microsoft.

There seems to be a current trend in naming products using the same or very similar words. I get it, for brand association and search engine optimization, keeping it the same keeps the brand top of mind and search results, but the big headache with this for consumers is making sure they are getting and using the product they want.

Let’s look at an example of it done right. Sony PlayStation. The first PlayStation was just that “Sony PlayStation”. When the successor came along, they followed a logical path and went with “Sony PlayStation 2”, or the widely adopted PS2, and so on through the PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 4 (PS4), and the current generation PlayStation 5 (PS5). When Sony stepped into the handheld and mobile space, they went with the logical extension of PlayStation Portable, fitting right into their nickname branding with PSP. They then Released the PlayStation Vita, which was close enough to sound standard with their naming convention, but also differentiated enough that the consumer can easily tell the difference.

Our second example is a little less direct about their generations, but still done well, Nintendo. Their first “console” release in Japan only was the “Color TV-Game”. After this, they started putting their name in the console with the “Nintendo Entertainment System” (NES). They followed this with the logical “Super Nintendo Entertainment System” (SNES). These two logically named systems were followed with the “Nintendo 64” (N64). This may seem like a turn, but made logical sense from the technology side as the NES was an 8 bit system, the SNES was 16 bit, and N64 was their foray into the 64 bit space. From there they went to “Nintendo Game Cube”, “Nintendo Wii”, “Nintendo Wii U”, and the current “Nintendo Switch”.

I think Nintendo did this well with keeping their brand visibility by embedding Nintendo into the name itself, while having clearly distinct names between the generations, save the Wii vs. Wii U step in the wrong direction.

So lets get to the the challenge I have with Microsoft. Sticking with their game console naming, they stepped into the space with the Microsoft Xbox, which generally is and was just referred to as an Xbox. Their successor was named the Microsoft Xbox 360. Not super logical in any way, but differentiated enough for even the parents trying to buy these for Christmas to be likely to get the right version. When they were teasing their third generation, there was a lot of online discussion over what the name would be. Would they go Xbox 720? Xbox 1080? Xbox Infinity? Then the announcement came that they were naming it the Xbox One.

This is where I start to take issue with the naming. I can’t find any logic in a third generation console being named “One”. But the problem only gets worse from here. They then released some consoles that were not quite fourth generation called the “Xbox One S” and “Xbox One X”, providing smaller form factor and some performance upgrades, but still using the “Xbox One” generation of games. My initial problem with this was that the vast majority of non-Xbox users could not easily identify the difference from these, and I constantly got asked if there was even a difference. Also, “S” and “X” sound way to close when spoken and it was hard to explain that “S like Sierra” is the newer low end entry into the space, and “X like X-ray” is the high end with support for 4K. Totally makes sense right? (I briefly forgot this is text, that question is definitely sarcasm).

For their final and most egregious violation in this train of naming, their current generation console is the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X. In just typing that, it took me three times to get it right. They took the most egregious violation in their letter choice from the previous generation, and doubled down by changing “One” to “Series”. So the lineup looks like:

• Xbox One
• Xbox One S
• Xbox One X
• Xbox Series S
• Xbox Series X

With minor and major differences between each of these, if a person went into a store looking to purchase one of these as a gift, not being a Xbox user themselves, I suppose there is a 20% chance they would buy the model that the recipient wanted.

I’ll stop with the exposition for a moment here, and just give a side by side example of operating system naming conventions so that you can draw your own conclusions on these.

Year	Android OS (Google Mobile	OSX (apple desktop)	Windows (Microsoft Desktop)
Pre- 1990			Windows 1.01 – Windows 2.11
1990 -1994			Windows 3.0 – Windows 3.5 Windows NT 3.1 – Windows NT 3.5.1
1995			Windows 95
1998			Windows 98
1999			Windows 98 Second Edition
2000			Windows 2000
2000			Windows Me
2001		Mac OS X 10.0 and Mac OS X 10.1	Windows XP
2002		Mac OS X 10.2
2003		Mac OS X 10.3
2004		Mac OS X 10.4
2006		Mac OS X 10.5
2007			Windows Vista
2006		Mac OS X 10.6
2008	Android 1.0
2009	Android Cupcake Android Donut		Windows 7
2010	Android Eclair Android Froyo	Mac OS X 10.7
2011	Android Gingerbread Android Honeycomb Android Ice Cream Sandwich
2012	Android Jelly Bean	OS X 10.8	Windows 8
2013	Android KitKat	OS X 10.9	Windows 8.1
2014	Android Lollipop	OS X 10.10
2015	Android Marshmallow	OS X 10.11	Windows 10
2016	Android Nougat	ma OS 10.12
2017	Android Oreo	macOS 10.13
2018	Android Pie	macOS 10.14
2019	Android 10	macOS 10.15
2020	Android 11	macOS 11
2021	Android 12	macOS12	Windows 11

A final word for Microsoft, and now I’m going to bring in acronyms which could be an entire post of it’s own. Microsoft 365, Office 365 and Azure all have a number of things that all include those words or numbers, making it not so straightforward. The particular example I will give is regarding Active Directory and their implementation of this in the 365/Azure space.

• First there was Active Directory when you hosted it on your server in your network. Most of the IT people have called it just AD.
• Then came Azure Active Directory when you were able to have this identity service in the cloud. Microsoft references this as AAD.
• To connect these two, you have Azure Active Directory Connect, abbreviated by Microsoft AADC.
• Then there is the full featured Azure Active Directory Domain Services, abbreviated by Microsoft as AADDS.
• Now to differentiate between the on premise full feature, you also need Active Directory Domain Services, which Microsoft abbreviates as ADDS.
• Finally, if you want to federate your connection between ADDS and AADDS, you will need Active Directory Federation Services, abbreviated by Microsoft as ADFS.

All in all, that is AD, AAD, AADC, AADDS, ADDS, ADFS. This doesn’t even get into the tangential services of PIM, PAM, MIM, MAM, MEM, MDM, or IAM.

Based on those acronyms, good luck finding the article that is relevant to the particular flavor of active directory or identity management that you are researching….

*for those of you who stuck around and want to know what those last acronyms are, in order of appearance: Privileged Identity Management, Privileged Access Management, Microsoft Identity Manager, Microsoft Application Manager, Microsoft Endpoint Manager, and Mobile Device Management. All of which are in a very similar technology space of Identity and Access Management.