At the Consumer Electronics Show that’s currently going on in Las Vegas, Dell made a major announcement about its laptops. [I know what you’re thinking: Whoa whoa whoa, WTF? This is Macworld! Why is this Loyola guy writing about Dell? Where’s his latest screed about how the Mac rulez? Stick with me for a minute. Please.] Dell is undergoing a major rebranding effort, dropping the XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude brands that customers have come to love. (Okay, maybe not love, more like recognize.)

The new names for its laptops? Hold on to your hats. They are (drumroll, please):

Dell.

Dell Pro.

Dell Pro Max.

[Hold on–did you catch that last one, Dell Pro Max? I want to make sure, because if you’re like me and hate Macworld’s page design, then you know that we place an ad insert after the fourth paragraph in each and every news article, much to the editors’ chagrin. So single-word paragraphs like “Dell Pro Max” can get lost in our layout.]

Now, those names–especially the Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max–sound familiar, don’t they? If only social media (and by “social media,” I mean BlueSky) can clue me in…

This is the dumbest naming strategy I’ve ever seen in my life. Way to take the worst things from Apple and somehow make them even more confusing. This is not an improvement, Dell! via https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24325799/dell-pro-max-premium-plus-ces-laptop-pc-rebrand-announcement

— Christina Warren (@filmgirl.bsky.social) 2025-01-06T20:51:24.548939Z

Hey now, hold on George, Sean, and Christina! According to PCWorld, Dell’s new names have nothing to do with Apple. When asked about copying Apple’s names, “Dell executives dismissed the concern, indicating that these are universal terms that consumers are already familiar with.”

Umm, why are they familiar terms? Maybe because Apple uses them? Perhaps?

But wait! The Dell naming goes one step further, providing that Dell isn’t copying Apple! Says PCWorld:

Under each tier, computers will also be split up into three more sub-categories. Base is, well, the base model…Plus is a step above that… Premium is the top-end model in each tier…

So that means Dell’s top-of-the-line laptop will be referred to as the Dell Pro Max (Premium), which is a step above the Dell Pro Max (Plus), which is a step above the Dell Pro Max (Base), which is a step above the Dell Pro (Premium), which is…better than XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude?

Anyway, for as long as I’ve been covering Apple and tech in general, there are many things you can count on, and one of those things is that companies copy each other and deny that they are doing so. And another thing you can count on is that PC fanboys will deny that Dell is copying Apple even though it clearly is. Those are sure bets and if I could put money on them, I would.

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