lol .....
What the brand ‘means’ to the users is where it matters.
Yep.
The legendary relative lack of choices in the Apple product line (compared to the plethora of PCs and options) is part of the brand identification, I think. You look at just about -any- Apple product and you know immediately that it's an Apple product.
And there are tons of Apple brand loyalists out there to demonstrate that Apple's limited choices nevertheless appeal to a heck of a lot of people (albeit still generally at a niche level).
Microsoft's brand is strong, but more diffuse, I think. It's hard to conjure up a mental image of something that represents "The Microsoft Brand", in the same way that the iPod or iMac or iPhone represent "The Apple Brand".
Which is a shame -- Microsoft certainly has the products and technical know-how. I have to assume their marketing people are asleep.