You're correct that brand proliferation is a Microsoft problem (actually Cisco is a bigger offender here - but they don't sell directly to consumers all that much).

But it's not like they have to be like this. Make the business brands profligate and ensure the consumer brands are simple and to the point, and cut out weak brands (mac.com? me.com? all getting thrown away).

I don't know if you meant to reply to someone else or if you misread what I was saying, but I don't see Microsoft's brands as a particularly troubling subject. I'm glad they're consolidating their Windows Live stuff to a nicer name and format, but I'd say on everything else they market just one option to the consumer and multiples to the business.

It's harder for Microsoft to throw away some brands because they have massive amounts of users who only know the name. Apple hasn't had millions of users on me.com over a decade and a half. Harder to throw out hotmail.com.