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by unethical_ban 526 days ago
It's a transparent ripoff of Apple's branding.

Should I get the "Dell Pro Max ", the "Dell Pro Max Plus", "Dell Pro Plus", or the "Dell Premium"?

I understand cleaning up the model lineup, but jeez.

2 comments

Marketing things as "pro" is nothing new. I'm sure others could go back farther than this.

1980 Koga Miyata Pro https://www.speedbicycles.ch/velo/193/koga_miyata_pro_racer_...

1978 Centurion Pro Tour https://vintagecenturion.com/models/touring/protour.shtml

1969 Brooks Professional Saddle https://www.brooksengland.com/en_us/standard-professional.ht...

As for "rip-offs," the design language of every aluminum Macbook has basically been Leica rangefinder.

https://www.rustmag.com/gear/2020/12/16/4-reasons-to-buy-a-l...

Which is a double "rip-off," as the IBM Thinkpad goes back a lot farther and it was intentionally made black-with-red-accents to pay homage to Nikon while having the form factor of a bento box.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/m...

If it were just pro that would be one thing, but when I saw “Pro Max” I instantly thought of Apple.
The Taco Bell menu is several permutations of cheese, lettuce, ground beef, sour cream, and guacamole.

The marketing vocabulary includes Pro, Max, Sport, Comp, Light, Elite, XT, GT, Super, and Extra.

SuperMax Pro. Sportmax GT. Sportmax Elite GT. Comp Extra. Etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProMax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promax_Awards

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_MaxxPro

> Should I get the "Dell Pro Max ", the "Dell Pro Max Plus", "Dell Pro Plus", or the "Dell Premium"?

I thought you were joking, but these do seem to be options in the new, simpler branding!

It's designed to make the basic option still sound special.

People on a budget don't want to be presented with the option of the Dell Basic, the Dell Standard, and the Dell Premium.

At the other end of the spectrum you have people booking Basic Economy airline fares, and at least in several cases, willfully ignoring the fare conditions (specifically, non-assigned seating), and then showing up at the gate, "My wife and I and our three children all need to be in the same row."