HBO Streaming Service Rebranding Leaves Mac Users App-Less: What Went Wrong, Max?

Warner Bros. Inc.’s (NASDAQ:WBD) streaming service HBO Max‘s recent rebranding to just “Max” has left Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac users without an app. 

What Happened: On Saturday, Apple analyst Mark Gurman took to Twitter and echoed the sentiments of millions of Apple users worldwide, stating that the HBO Max rebrand to Max “killed the old HBO Max app on the Mac App Store.” 

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What’s worse is that the platform “didn’t bother” to release a replacement or enable the new iPad app to run on the Mac. 

Gurman concluded his tweet by raising questions on the company’s decision to make Max a new app instead of simply updating the HBO Max one. 

Nevertheless, it appears that even though many users aren’t happy with the way HBO Max’s highly-anticipated rebranding was handled, Comcast Corporation’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) streaming video-on-demand service, Peacock wasted no time in trolling its rival. ‘

For the uninitiated, Max is currently available for a monthly subscription of $19.99 or an annual fee of $199.99. The current plan of existing HBO Max subscribers will remain accessible for at least the next six months after the launch. 

Why It’s Important: This is one of many things that might have disappointed some HBO Max users. 

Max’s rocky launch after rebranding from HBO Max resulted in massive issues for subscribers, possibly due to the creation of a new app instead of a simple renaming. 

The issue left many users unable to log in, or they experienced frequent crashes, lagging video streaming, mismatched subtitles, limited access to content, unexpected commercials and frustrating screen blackouts with audio but no picture. 

Here are some tweets from Tuesday:

Let me get this straight. We pay for HBO Max, but now that it is just @StreamOnMax our house is suddenly no longer in a region that streams Max? (Last time I looked our condo is still in the US of A.)

— Charlie Athanas (@Charlie_Athanas) May 24, 2023

HBO Max is now Max. It is also not working either. pic.twitter.com/uSPWvkpWTj

— Cinema Snopes (@CinemaSnopes) May 23, 2023

max rolling out is very funny, in part because the app runs like shit and also the website breaks down half the time when you try to do anything account related

— 𝕊ℙ𝕆ℝ𝕂𝔹𝕆𝕆𝕋 (@sporkboot) May 24, 2023

Whoever runs Max or HBOmax is definitely a gop supporter. Because they didnt actually improve anything and just made ish harder. One, I had to download a completely different app for the same service. Two, my app keeps shutting down. Why don't they ever fix actual issues?

— Kamii (@GONEIN25) May 24, 2023

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