The funny thing about social media is that it’s now a lot easier for critics to be publicly criticized – something YouTube influencer and tech commentator Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, learned firsthand after releasing a new mobile wallpaper app called Panels.
People are loudly hating the app, which was released as part of Brownlee’s iPhone 16 review video, and has faced a torrent of criticism from fans over its pricing, data collection, and overall unpleasantness.
Dude, I just downloaded a jpeg from the internet.
— Dr. Parikh Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. (@ParikPatelCFA) September 24, 2024
Panels aims to offer a curated selection of “stunning full-resolution wallpapers” from digital artists, but its subscription model of $49.99 per year or $11.99 per month has alienated many of Brownlee’s 19 million-plus followers.
The pricey Panels collection includes ones with just a solid orange background (perfect for Halloween?) as well as flat images of a pixelated piano and tiny people walking across a blue background.
Screenshot of MKBHD’s wallpaper app “Panels.” Image: Decrypt
Brownlee’s comment section was flooded with negative feedback, with over 13,000 replies in the first 20 hours. People weren’t too interested in the new iPhone, but they wanted to know what Brownlee was thinking when coming up with the app pricing structure.
“Nobody is going to pay $50 a year for a regular wallpaper app,” commented user MrUnknownXD, which has garnered more than 25,000 likes. “How unrealistic do you have to be to think paying $50 a year for a wallpaper app is a good idea,” said another commenter.
Brownlee, who has worked on product development in the past, emphasized that Panels was built “from the ground up,” especially through collaborations with Ridge and Atoms. Brownlee responded to users who questioned the value of the app by explaining that “all wallpapers are made by artists, and artists can choose whether or not to involve AI in the production process.” Brownlee also noted that half of the revenue (after Apple deducts 30%) goes to the wallpaper artists.
This is damaging to the brand. It seems crazy that a top tech reviewer known for advocating quality and usefulness would release a money-making subscription app with terrible UI design, riddled with ads, and mediocre wallpapers.
— Alex Kehr (@alexkehr) September 24, 2024
To date, the app has been downloaded over 10,000 times on Android, making it the second most downloaded app in Apple’s photo and video section (though download numbers aren’t publicly available). Just because it’s free to download doesn’t mean someone has subsequently purchased a subscription, but it’s a public statistic, so let’s do some quick math.
With just 10,000 subscribers, he would make about $500,000 a year, and at the highest figure, 1.9 million subscribers (10% of his base) would bring him about $10 million a year.
MKBHD says it will take 50% of the revenue and give the other 50% to the artists, meaning the $10 million will be split between the App Store: $3 million to the App Store, $3.5 million to MKBHD and collaborators, and finally $3.5 million among the artists featured on the app.
Not a bad harvest against an orange background.
Beyond the pricing structure, users have also expressed concern about the sheer amount of data Panels collects before downloading a jpeg. The list includes location, contact information, local IP address, device model, cookies, local address, and more.
Brownlee tried to calm things down by pointing out that there is a free plan for lazy people — you have to watch two unskippable ads before you can download a single low-res file, of course — but there’s no such thing as free food, right?
He also promised updates to his subscribers, which was bad for his own reputation because he is known to recommend buying products at their current value, not what they promised, which was a key point that led him to call the AI Humane Pin the worst product he has ever covered.
Of course, smart people learn from their mistakes, and Brownlee became a big man at YouTube because he wasn’t smart enough. He was quick to acknowledge the negative feedback, promising that his team was working on “excessive data disclosure” and “reducing ad frequency” in the free version of the app.
But he doubled down on the $50-a-year subscription plan: “We understand your sentiments on pricing, and we challenge ourselves to strive to provide that value in our premium version,” he tweeted, also promising that the Panels app will “steadily improve over time.”
Is a red background in the works? Only a dream.
Edited by: Josh Quitner, Andrew Hayward
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