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Apparently this strategy seems to work also for hardware. Look at Samsung.

Samsung is focusing on a much smaller number of devices than they used to. Yes, they have more than Apple, but they also spend way more on advertising to make up for it.

Instead of hundreds of phones, they have maybe a dozen now that they actively promote. Right now I can't leave the house without being bombarded by Samsung advertising, they're in some kind of feverish campaign over their new Note phone-tablet-thing.

And TV:s, fridges, computers... They manufacture more than just phones you know.

They don't dominate any market like they do Android phones. Are 90% of all fridges sold made by Samsung?

They are actually turning back to that. The are at least 5 new different variants coming up of their S4 "flagship": S4 regular, S4 Google Edition, S4 Mini, S4 Active, S4 Zoom, S4 Mega.

And that's just for one "phone brand". Imagine if they do this to every other phone brand of theirs, which are already being called all "Galaxy". Samsung strategy is becoming a mess again. It will work in the short term (a year or so), and then backfire badly.

Depends. Branding works when you actually manage to maintain quality across a lineup.

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