Dell Adopts Apple-Inspired 'Pro' and 'Pro Max' Branding for PC Lineup, Drawing Criticism

Dell has announced a major rebranding of its PC lineup, adopting Apple's naming strategy with 'Pro' and 'Pro Max' designations.

Revealed at CES 2025, the change simplifies decade old product names like XPS and Inspiron in favor of Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max tiers.

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Buying a PC can be a complex experience, with multiple factors to consider – brands, models, form factors, performance, graphics, storage and materials. In fact, 74% of consumers walked away from technology purchases simply because they felt overwhelmed.


Dell's new branding puts the highly trusted Dell name front and center with three PC categories:

● Dell: Designed for play, school and work.
● Dell Pro: Designed for professional-grade productivity.
● Dell Pro Max: Designed for maximum performance.

The Dell and Dell Pro product lines extend to displays, accessories and services for a consistent customer experience across the entire client portfolio.
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The company was criticized for copying Apple at its press conference, according to a Bloomberg report.


"I am wondering why you guys didn't choose something original, because you essentially have Apple's branding here," one audience member quipped. Another said "your branding sounds a lot like Apple — aren't you just following them?"

Dell executives defended the decision, noting that nobody owns words like 'pro' or 'max'. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said the choice was supported by research with "tens of thousands of customers."

In a follow up statement on the controversy, Dell appeared to criticize Apple for releasing 'Pro' products that aren't really 'Pro'.

"Our new simplified portfolio focuses on our company brand and uses descriptive industry words for categories and tiers. These descriptive words are industry words. For example, Pro was an industry term long before Apple started using it. Pro has been used by Microsoft with Windows, AMD with Ryzen, Intel with vPro. When we use Pro, it will consistently mean professional-grade productivity. That consistency isn't always there from our competitors, where Pro can mean different things on different products. We will make this clear throughout the customer purchasing/researching experience."

More details in the full announcement linked below...

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