I've been thinking about this a bit and I'm torn here. When you focus on a given product group things don't always line up that also fit with other products. So there needs to be a bit of flex in how this is done that also works across other product areas.
So as an example if we focus on MacBook systems we have 5 groups:
- MacBook Core Duo
- MacBook Core 2 Duo
- MacBook Unibody Model A1278
- MacBook Unibody Model A1342
- Retina MacBook 2015
So we are all over the place on how we delineate just within this one subgroup!
- Between November '06 thru October '09 both the MacBook Core Duo & MacBook Core 2 Duo where listed as A1181 and had the following EMC numbers: 2092, 2121, 2139, 2200 & 2242, 2300, 2330
- Just to confuse things Apple intro'ed the Unibody series in June '09 under A1278 with EMC 2254
- Apple followed up with a different Unibody design in May '10 under A1342 - EMC numbers: 2350 & 2395
- Lastly, the latest MacBook is a completely different design with the Retina display under A1534 - EMC number 2746. Only this model has a newer i7 design CPU.
So with this info we can see we really need a way to allow people to isolate the system by different ways (A number EMC number or even year) to get to the correct guide. One of the issues I've noted as of late is really needing the processors clock speed as some systems within the series have unique issues.
So what would be ideal here would be a popup listing once you get to the major group (in our case MacBook). So you would see here the headings: A number, EMC number or Year and the pop up would then offer you a list of systems based on your choice then you would be greeted with the models of the sub set to then click on. The next field would allow one to plug-in the CPU's clock speed as optional. Instead of clock it could be memory as in the case of iPhone or iPad.
Hopefully this would be workable across other devices.
One last point I forgot in my original posting:
While I've been focused on the MacBook here the method also needs to work with other devices besides Apple's gear (lawnmower, cars, toaster ovens ...)