Update: October 10th 2024: Marques and team have updated their app to remove many of the ads described below. They are also allowing for full resolution downloads by viewing one ad. The original copy of this post is left as-is below for transparency.
The immortal words of Marques Brownlee there from a twitter post back in 2021. Why, I hear you ask, am I leading a blog post in 2024 with that tweet? Allow me to explain. On Tuesday, Marques (more commonly referred to online by his handle MKBHD) released his highly anticipated review of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro on YouTube. These yearly videos often draw in huge amounts of views, with this latest video already at 3.7 million views after just two days. The review focuses on the new devices and makes note of the
What made this video particularly notable, however, is that he spent the first two minutes of it launching a new app. Panels is an app for iPhone and Android that allows you to “transform your screen into an art gallery with curated wallpapers”. This might seem a little odd, but as he points out in his own video – when you Google “where does MKBHD…” the first suggestion is “…get his wallpapers”. Despite sounding pretty innocent, the launch of this app has quickly turned controversial with the majority of comments on the video relating to it, rather than the new iPhones. So what gives?
Pricing Concerns
Panels is positioned as a curated service and currently offers two payment tiers.
- Free users are able to download the majority of wallpapers in a “SD” format (typically full HD resolution, but most cell phone displays now support resolutions in excess of that) in exchange for viewing advertiser content. In my limited time testing the app, most downloads require you to watch two 30-second long unskippable ads before allowing you to download the wallpaper. There are some wallpapers only available as part of paid “collections” with no option for a free download (however these are available at no extra cost to paid subscribers)
- Panels+ is the subscription tier, and offers users the ability to offer any wallpaper in the app at no additional cost. The pricing is currently (in Canada) $59.99 for the year or $15.99 per month
MKBHD is on record as saying that revenue from the app is being shared “50/50” with the artists involved however many people, myself included, are having a hard time understanding how a price that is comparable to a monthly Netflix subscription is a compelling option especially with many device users rarely changing their wallpapers.
About that advertising
MKBHD is widely considered to be a bit of an authority in the tech world. By extension, when his name is attached to things it can lead to people having the impression (fair or otherwise) that he is endorsing those products or services. This becomes a little problematic when the advertising on your app is low quality in nature. When testing the app yesterday, the first two ads I was served were for a very generic matching game, and for a “phone cleaning” app. You can see the ads in the video embedded below. Are these apps that MKBHD would want his name attached to?
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Content concerns
Panels provides wallpapers from a selection of artists. While there’s a selection of photography, there’s also some abstract artworks and also a selection of AI generated content (which is in itself, a little controversial in the art community right now). What’s causing some concern however is the appearance of what seems to be intellectual property belonging to others appearing on this platform – specific examples being the Batman and Superman logos as seen below which one assumes would be property of DC Comics. Instead, they’re attributed to the artist Justin Maller and noted as “Copyright 2024” – however it’s not clear who the copyright is being attributed to in this case.
Permissions
Many users also noted that the Panels app appears to need a surprising level of permissions for a simple wallpaper downloading app. The app store description shows that the app uses information such as location, contact information, search history and more. For what it’s worth on first install of the app the only popup request I saw was a standard “allow tracking” request – to which I promptly selected no.
So what was that about promises?
For his part, Marques did release a post on Twitter last night addressing some of the concerns. Among other things, he stated that “part of building in public is getting mass feedback immediately” and went on to say that “we’re […] fixing the excessive privacy disclosures […] we’d never actually ask for your location, internet history, etc”.
He also addressed pricing concerns by saying “it’s our own personal challenge to work to deliver that kind of value for the premium version”.
Now here’s the thing – I think Marques is a fantastic content creator. I have watched many of his videos over the years and have for the most part found his content to be largely well balanced and fair in nature. Earlier this year he faced some criticism following critical reviews of both Fisker and the Human Pin to which I defended him on threads. This however is different, because now he is responsible for a product that he is presenting to the public.
While I think that his statement does go some way toward addressing concerns, I think it still misses the mark.
Particularly ironic is his claim that they’ll work to deliver value to customers – he has previously, and repeatedly, stated that you shouldn’t base purchasing decisions based on future updates. In fact, the very iPhone that he was reviewing in his video is coming under some scrutiny due to the fact it’s key features (Apple Intelligence) aren’t yet available. Now he is asking his very own customers (because that’s exactly what they are now) to do the opposite – please subscribe to my app because things will be better later on, promise. It just doesn’t stand up well to scrutiny.
If Marques would like to stay in this game, and I would encourage him to do so if that’s what he’s passionate about, here’s what I’d like to see:
- Reduction in pricing more in line with peoples wallpaper-changing habits. Competing apps are typically offered at a lower one-time free or have monthly payments of less than $5/month
- Curate the in-app advertising. Again, your fans are trusting you and your content. If your app is pushing scammy apps, people will see that as an endorsement from you – it devalues your brand and will lead to negative user experiences
- Remove potentially infringing content. Charging users for content that may or may not be infringing on others brands or trademarks isn’t a great look. If it turns out that your artists have the rights to use such imagery, it should probably be noted somewhere on the download page to avoid confusion
- Fix your permissions. No-one wants to think that their wallpaper app is tracking their browsing history. Either fix the descriptions (if they’re wrong) or fix what you’re tracking (if they’re accurate)
