Translate Apple's model identifiers (MacBookPro5,1) to user-friendly names?

Question

Does Mac OS X have API that translates Apple's model identifiers (the kind found in plists and APIs, e.g., "MacBookPro5,1") to user-friendly marketing names of these devices ("Unibody MacBook Pro Late 2008")?

I'm looking for more future-proof solution than simply hardcoding a list.

Answer 1

There's no table built into the Apple libraries for that. Sorry.

Answer 2

Try scraping this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Apple_Macintosh_models

Of course, this isn't guaranteed to continue to work, but it's a start.