Marques Brownlee gets backlash on his new tech company

Marques Brownlee, the tech YouTuber who owns the channel MKBHD has almost 20 million viewers attention. He grew up expecting and providing an honest and detailed analysis of new types of equipment, which made him gain the respect of his fellow technologists. Brownlee has been highly critical of gadgets such as the Humane Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 but lauds the Apple Vision Pro and OnePlus 12 inventions. That being said, Brownlee was recently on the sharp end of a critical backlash after unveiling his latest start-up; Panels, an app solution.

The Launch of Panels

On September 23, 2024, Brownlee launched Panels – an application for mobile wallpapers, which uses art from selected artists in HD quality. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Brownlee expressed his excitement, stating, People have asked where I get wallpapers FOREVER, so this is the answer, now and forever: PANELS! The app was also introduced in his iPhone 16 review video in which he said it allowed for premium collections of wallpapers to be subscribed to.

Nevertheless, the application was further introduced by the man, and many users complained about its design, features and cost.

Customer Complaints and Unfavourable Ratings

Soon as Panels was released, people began complaining on social platforms and the Apple App Store. It started from the way the app interface was designed to outrageous practices about the monetization process. Yet one user, Ian Zelbo, claimed: Pretty disappointed in this. No longer has the shine/look I’d associate with it. It looks more like something that was already available in the App Store which you simply put your name on. Commercials in abundance and what seems to have become prominent is a way to make money.

Another important issue that the app’s owners could not decide on was its pricing model. Panels provide users to make a one-time subscription of $49.99 to download all premium wallpapers of a year and another option monthly subscription fee of $11.99 to make membership for a month. There are just a couple of free wallpapers, however, these are SD only and the user is first required to view two ads. This the fans did, some of whom even went to the extent of calling the application an overpriced product with no value for the price tag.

$50/yr for WALLPAPERS?! Isn’t there any high-resolution wallpaper which is free for download with just ads? Yes, it was very hilarious! However, tough love team MKBHD and all, but that’s crazy [said a user known as Nevan].

Some, however, wondered how a person, who stands for the quality, can create an app that has some signs of a rushed and overly commercialized production. This harms your brand, pointed out Alex Kehr. So the #1 tech reviewing channel that is dedicated to the quality and usability of tech products comes up with a weak cash grab subscription app full of ads, and awful interface, and low-quality wallpapers?

Response of Industry and Jesse Lyu’s Meme

S | Brownlee’s app also caught the attention of entities in the industry like Rabbit R1 CEO Jesse Lyu of a device Brownlee had disparaged. Lyu decided to take a dig at Brownlee’s circumstance and posted a meme on X. The meme was Brownlee represented as the grim reaper, implying that he enjoys killing startups given the harshest critiques he gives to them.

The meme also shows other tech leaders like Imran Chaudhri (who founded the Humane Ai Pin) alongside Brownlee and other prior victims of his critiquing, including Tim Cook of Apple. The last of these victims of the meme was Brownlee himself with the comment that he should subject his own application to the same level of criticism he doles out to others.

Brownlee Defends His Position on the Issue

Following this, on the Sept. 24 Brownlee addressed the controversy with accepting the negative comments. In the post on X, he was keen to respond to complaints from his fans, and was in the process of finding ways to make the change. I hear you! Brownlee wrote.

In an attempt to respond to issues of privacy he has noted that the application they had developed did not follow the internet history or the physical location of the users. Brownlee insisted they underestimated the data disclosures people were concerned with due to suggestions and promises from ad networks and agreed on revising the statements. Which we would never directly request, anyways, such as location history, browsing history, etc. The data disclosures, (that everyone is screenshotting), Here it’s probably too broad and dominated by what the ad networks recommend.

Regarding the price issue, Brownlee agreed that the added cost had to offer more value and laid out some ideas to decrease the number of ads in the non-paid program. He stated that more updates would have to sent to fix these problems in the near future.

A brief overview of Brownlee’s prior enterprises

Panels is not the first business that Brownlee tries to create. In the past, he has worked with other companies; for instance, he produced sneakers with Atoms and developed tech accessories with Ridge. The Panels app on the other hand signifies a new form of investment – Brownlee is actually involved in the creation of the app through his personal company, meaning he will be a face for the app.

Panel’s Future Indeterminacy

Thus, with the first wave of negative feedbacks the future of Panels remains open. Brownlee has many devoted users, and if he continues to answer user complaints, the app may be able to come back. Nevertheless, the audience of the tech world will be able to see for itself whether Panels’ failure will ever happen under the leadership of Brownlee or if the latter project will be considered an exception in the successful career of the clarified individual.

Who is Marques Brownlee?

More specifically, popular tech channel with millions of subscriptions is Marques Brownlee with his channel under the name MKBHD, making reviews of gadgets detailed, honest, and visually rich. He started his channel in 2009 and with it becoming one of the most trusted tech channel of today, he provides insightful analysis of smartphones, laptops and other innovative gadgets. Brownlee has also bin privileged to interview some of the world greatest minds including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg among others.

Besides the referred channel in the Tubes, Brownlee has taken his brand to reach other fields such as fashion and technology. Being able to explain the concepts of such technology in a very simple manner has placed him amongst some of the most credible and Followed personalities in the technological industry today, it however became evident that even Brownlee the reviewer who created the Panels app was not immune from certain challenges that are faced when Transferring from reviewing into becoming an entrepreneur.