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The Idea of Marques Brownlee's App Panels is OK

But I Have Several Problems With It

With the review of the latest iPhones, Marques Brownlee/MKBHD also revealed his latest project: The app Panels.

And I don’t mind the idea:

App promo with the text 'Design by artists, handpicked for you. Panels elevates your screen time with a high-quality, personalized collection created by talented artists, turning your device into a digital art gallery.

He’s hinted at expanding it in the future, but currently the app is an app to get wallpapers. You can get some of them for free (and by watching ads), but you can also buy packs of them, or subscribe to the app to get access to everything. The money is split between the app and the artists.

Wallaroo, by Iconfactory, is already a paid app for wallpapers, and Walli is an example of an app with a model where artists can upload their work.

In general, I feel like people’s expectations of stuff being free online is too high, so I don’t mind a new paid option in the market.

But these are my problems:

  1. The name
  2. The price
  3. The split
  4. The privacy
I want to mention that, in general, I quite like Marques and MKBHD! So this criticism isn't coming from hate.

1) The name

I get that it’s difficult to come up with an original name, as there are so many apps and companies out there. And, yes, “panels” can refer to screens – but it can also refer to comic panels. And the name Panels is already taken, by a great app for reading those!

iPad screenshot of a comic book in Panels.
Check out (the original) Panels, if you like reading comics! The iPhone version is also pretty clever.

2) The price and 3) The split

Panels (the wallpaper app) splits the income with artists – kind of like what music streaming apps do. So let’s compare it to, say, Spotify:

  • With Spotify, you get access to all* the music in the world, for $12/month | $144/year.1
  • And they get a lot of flack for “only” giving 75% of revenue to artists.2

Panels also cost $12/month – but has a heavily discounted yearly price of “only” $50/year. But that’s still far too much. 1-2/month | $10-20/year would be fair, IMO. I’d value “all music” more than three times higher than “some wallpapers”…

However, the worst part is the split: Where Spotify gives 75% of revenue to artists, Panels give 50% of profits. The difference between “revenue” and “profits” is important here! And in what world is that a fair assessment of how much value the app maker and the artists provide!? What would the app be without content?

He might say (or secretly think) “Pff, my name is so big – and if you want access to my audience, you have to pay up.” But anyone who thinks that, has forever lost the right to complain about Apple’s 30%, or YouTube’s cut, ever again…

If the app took about 20% of revenue, I’d say that seems about right.

4) The privacy

This The Verge article touches on some of the criticism of the app, including on privacy. And it also includes a post from Marques addressing some of it.

In short: It collects more than it should and needs to. But the data disclosures were also a bit overzealous.

For me, his answer to the criticism is far from hitting the mark. In terms of pricing, he only talks about improving the free version. But in general, the free version is challenging to combine with decent privacy – as the ads are tracking. And he doesn’t address the two things I’m most offended by at all: The pricing of the paid version, and the slap-in-the-face ratio of the split.3

  1. Both prices, and if they have a yearly plan, varies from country to country. ↩︎

  2. I’m not quite sure that’s fully deserved, though. I’ve written more abut that here. ↩︎

  3. And had the split been better, I would have less issue with the high price – as it at least would mostly go to artists. ↩︎