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Comment by InvisibleUp | Hacker News Reader

I feel like the headline is burying the lede here: every Dell sub-brand is going away expecting for the new “Pro” and “Pro Max”. Reminds me a lot of how Apple in the late 90s got rid of their Performa/Centris/Quadra/etc. for more obvious, matter-of-fact names.

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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.

> 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."

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

I find it funny how much they've just completely ceded branding standards to Apple in that move.

When your competition is Apple you want to make it as easy as possible to compare like-for-like. What laptop are they positioning as an alternative to the MacBook Pro? The Dell Pro.

On branding it seems like everyone starts to copy Apple at this point or makes branding as complex as Intel.

Because it's just simple and makes sense. Mostly, the only confusing apple product is iPad Air because it doesn't match what Air means in MacBooks.

> doesn't match what Air means in MacBooks

In the past I'd agree but these days it's better aligned.

Isn't the Air the lightest and thinnest?

The Macbook was thinner and lighter than the Macbook Air.

The MacBook hasn't been made for years though.

Yes, people are only confused because they think it means cheapest, which is ultimately a failing of Apple branding but doesn't really make much sense to me.

Agree, I bought an iPad recently and was really confused by pricings between the iPad (10 I think), the iPad Air and iPad Mini

It makes sense but it’s not obvious

I don't equate Air line to "cheapest", I think of it where compromises were made in the name of lower weight: lower TDP cpu, less cooling capacity etc.

Personally I find it confusing that all of their iPads since 2010 are simply called "iPad" even though they're completely different. Same with all their products except the iPhone, that get a number in their official name.

You have to dig into hidden "gen number" to find out which iPad is the one you bought 3 years ago.

> You have to dig into hidden "gen number" to find out which iPad is the one you bought 3 years ago.

This was the Apple way for long. I personally always liked that way. They messed it up with iPhone 3G tho.

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