Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MKBHD Shutting Down Controversial 'Panels' Wallpaper App
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The subscription revenue was just a greedy little extra. The real value, if a reasonable percentage of his supporters had downloaded the app, would have been the userdata which would have been a very lucrative product to sell on to marketing services.
What do you think YouTube is except a means of gaining marketing data? MB (or more likely his „team”) wanted their very own pie as well as getting a cut of the YouTube pie. Given the channel’s millions of subscribers, they probably thought it was a sure thing.
But it wasn’t. That’s hubris for you. The original Panels app was a way to get users to pay MB to let MB take their user data. I mean, being smug is his USP in the first place.
Last edited:
They also assume people care what they think. When these people start to get paid for things their opinions and suggestions seem to be worth less.
I guess the millions he's getting from reviews and free products is not enough. He wants more $$.
People really overreacted over this app. Its not like we were forced to buy these wallpapers and it was not like he stole some artists work. It was a way for artists to make money through subscription. I would never subscribe or buy wallpapers from an App because I don’t care about wallpapers (black wallpaper on my iPhone) but there are people like MKBHD who care about stuff like that and people really ask him about the wallpapers in his videos. I have a supposition why the backlash over such a silly thing. If someone becomes too big people want to see the downfall.
Last edited:
The idea was niche and not great but acting like we should not hold companies accountable for using costumers a beta tester and for releasing crap products is ridiculous.
People always complain about AI slop but then don’t want to pay for real human work.
It was #1 in the both Apple and Google's app stores and had over 2 million wallpaper downloads
Not true. People are generały happy to pay for things that they consider are worth paying for.
People did not think it was worth paying 12 bucks a month for a relatively small collection of wallpapers and have their userdata mined in the process.
If anybody here is interested in a reasonably priced wallpaper-based app, consider Wallaroo.
apps.apple.com
$2 a month, or $20 a year. Zero tracking, and it's made by the same people behind Twitterific.
Wallaroo App - App Store
Download Wallaroo by The Iconfactory on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like Wallaroo.
apps.apple.com
$2 a month, or $20 a year. Zero tracking, and it's made by the same people behind Twitterific.