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Welcome to The Afro Pivot Point
Showing You What’s Art and What’s Not in African Tech
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What You Should Know
Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) has finally done what we’ve all been waiting for—he stepped into the product arena with Panels, a wallpaper app. While fans expected a groundbreaking debut, the app has faced backlash for its user experience, pricing, and privacy concerns. In this article, I explore what went wrong, how Marques is handling the criticism, and why launching a product in the tech world is a different ball game than reviewing one. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when the critic becomes the creator, this one’s a reminder that it’s not the critic who counts, but the one in the arena.
Marques Brownlee, or MKBHD as he's known on the internet streets, has been trending on X for a good portion of this week. And it's not because of his honest, cut-to-the-chase reviews. This time, Marques is in the news for an app release.
The beloved tech reviewer is finally in the arena, fighting. The result? A wallpaper app called Panels, which, according to the marketing material, is "designed by artists, and handpicked (just) for you."
Like many of his fans, I was obviously excited at the prospect of Marques shipping a product. I mean, all the years of giving top-notch product reviews, amassing product knowledge, and building a reputation as one of the defining voices in the tech world could only mean that whatever Marques worked on would be a game-changer.
Panels: Designed by Artists, Handpicked for You
I don’t think I can do a Marques-style review, but in the few hours I spent interacting with the app, it became quite evident that the criticism he’s been receiving online is quite deserved. It’s important to note that Marques clearly had good intentions with this product. He wanted to support creatives by splitting the revenue 50-50. But should that take precedence over user experience? Even he would probably agree that UI and UX are almost as important as anything else. Unfortunately, the whole app experience feels like cash grab with a misaligned bottom line.
The app asks to track user activity from the jump (which is quite insane, tbh—why does a wallpaper app need to track location?). Compared to the high production quality of his YouTube videos, Panels falls short in the quality of its designs and animations. Ads (especially unskippable ones) are everywhere in the free version. To see better-quality images, you have to get the $50/year subscription or the $11.99 monthly subscription. This seems a bit much for just wallpapers when you can get the same from Unsplash for free—or even better, photos of yourself or loved ones. Some photos are evidently AI-generated but aren’t labeled as such. For a creator of his caliber, he should surely understand why not marking AI images could be detrimental to creatives.
The main complaints on socials have been about the extreme pricing models and the invasion of user privacy right from onboarding. But there are other issues, like payments being verified on the client side and some images missing the mark entirely (like the orange one—seriously?).
The constructive criticism is slowly being replaced by hate, especially from enemies he’s accrued over the years by bashing their favorite products, creators, and sometimes even developers.
A Taste of His Own Medicine
I have to give him his flowers for how he’s maintained his composure throughout all this. It’s evident that he’s not afraid to take a taste of his own medicine. He’s engaged with users, admitted the flaws on their part, and committed to ensuring their subscription models match the value users are paying for.
But perhaps now he knows firsthand that being an armchair expert doesn’t always translate to building and shipping products. At least not in tech. This is one of the few industries where people aren’t afraid to say it like it is. It doesn’t matter if you’re Apple or Tesla—you’ll always get it unfiltered and uncut.
And if you’ve built a reputation by reviewing and (constructively) criticizing people’s apps and products, the stakes are higher for you, no doubt. I strongly feel that any other person might have gotten away with this. But if you’re MKBHD, people want to stick it to you. If that means taking a day off to review every line of code, inspect the UI, and break down your revenue model, then it will be done.
All this is to prove that it’s not the critic who counts—it’s the man in the arena. It might also be because millions of fans, who think you’re the epitome of quality, placed you on a pedestal and are disappointed that your first attempt isn’t a home run.
Tech Needs You to Be Technical
That said, I’ve always believed that tech companies shouldn’t be run by MBAs or non-technical people. If you want to achieve what companies like Meta, Amazon, or even Google have done, you need to be deeply and truly technical. Zuck agrees too. This doesn’t always mean you should learn how to code (though that’s a good place to start), but it helps to understand the technical aspects of what you’re investing in so you can see the loopholes and strengths more clearly.
This is where people like to remind me that Steve Jobs never wrote code but was still one of the greatest tech visionaries. That’s true. But Jobs had other technical experiences from his time at the Homebrew Computer Club, Atari, and Hewlett-Packard. He also famously had a technical right hand in Wozniak. All these moving parts, coupled with being business savvy, positioned him as a great visionary and executor. He might not have been a developer, but he sure as hell knew how to help his teams execute the revolutionary products he’s so famous for.
Now Back to Marques
The moral of the story here is that good intentions don't always translate to impeccable execution—even for someone who reviews software for a living. So, the next time you hear a developer talk about spending hours writing code for a product they believe can change the world, extend them some grace. The product may not always match the vision behind it at first, but building in public helps them get closer to that goal.
Proximity to power shouldn’t delude you into thinking you wield it. Being a top tech reviewer (for all the right reasons) doesn’t negate the fact that, in tech, developers will always be the stars of the show. If you’ve never written a single line of code, it might be hard to grasp the magnitude of what it takes to build and ship a product users want and need—until you try. And it’s a wallpaper app that even your reputation can’t glamorize.
The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
I can’t go without mentioning that most of the reviews I see criticizing the African tech scene as lazy or underdeveloped come from:
1. People who don’t live on the continent,
2. Have never lived on the continent, or
3. Haven’t overcome any odds to make it in this gruesome tech scene.
By all indications, it’s these opinions that are lazy and underdeveloped. Go out and build something. Then ship it, and we’ll hold you to your impossible standards. And do that while navigating a scene built on failed systems at large. Then maybe, just maybe, you will be more gracious.
Icarus Is Flying Close to the Sun
I love it for him. It might not have been a show-stopping performance, but he flew regardless. And by all accounts, Marques is great at what he does. He has rightfully earned his seat at the table. He’s a consumer advocate—and sorry, we can’t all be great product builders. We need critics if we’re going to keep making inventions that push the human race forward. But lest we forget, it is not the critic who counts. Credit will always belong to the man in the arena.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Marques’ foray into the world of product creation with Panels. Do you think he’ll turn it around and make it a game changer, or is the tech world just too unforgiving? Let me know what you think!
Talk to me: [email protected]
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Till next time, cheers!