It’s a slightly different situation but that’s essentially what they are doing with Macs, saying this-and-that is compatible with the MacBook Pro (early 2009) and such.
It is also common to refer to the Macs with their iteration+variant number, e.g mine is a MacBook Pro 5,5
System Information was actually the easiest way to get such a specifier before Lion, which now shows the "MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid-2009" in the brand new "More Info..." of "About This Mac".
