What an interesting business scenario this was as a famous tech reviewer named Marques Brownlee is well known for giving thorough and honest reviews of the latest gadgets such as smartphones. In recent times he has been very critical about certain products where some viewed it as unprofessional whereas others see it as just being honest when it comes to bad products. In his recent video where he reviews the Apple iPhone 16 his comment section was receiving a lot of negative remarks about his launch of an app called “Panels” which seems to provide phone users with a way to get some unique wallpaper.
As it turns out, a lot of people were blasting Marques Brownlee as they felt the app wasn’t impressive plus the fact that there is apparently a premium version of the app that costs about $50 per year. I did find that an odd value proposition for simply a wallpaper app. But another big criticism was apparently the app asks users for a lot of phone permissions in which Marques Brownlee then address publicly saying quote:
“Part of building in public is getting mass feedback immediately, which is pretty dope. Almost exactly like publishing a YouTube video
First thing we’re doing is fixing the excessive data disclosures, as people rightfully brought up. For transparency, we’d never actually ask for your location, internet history, etc. The data disclosures (that everyone is screenshotting) is likely too broad, and largely driven by what the ad networks suggest. Working to fix that ASAP.
As far as pricing, I hear you! It’s our own personal challenge to work to deliver that kind of value for the premium version. (Weekly Friday drops are already starting) I’ll also be dialing back ad frequency for the free experience
Much more to come. I appreciate you all”
It’s just so interesting to see a person who primarily critiques other company’s product to then try and create his own where as expected the expectation that people have is set extremely high. I suppose the mindset for many is if you spend all this time evaluating other people’s products then surely you should know how to make something great yourself. Not always true of course. A famous food critique doesn’t necessarily mean they will actually be good chefs themselves. But like their, if that person decided to open up a restaurant and it was subpar you can expect the backlash to be greater because of their background in criticizing others.
I guess one topic that arisen out of this is how if you are in the business of reviewing other people’s products and services should you avoid trying to make your own? In this example anyways you can lose a lot of the authority in your primary business in an effort to try and make more with a side business.