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

Warner Bros. Inc.’s WBD streaming service HBO Max‘s recent rebranding to just “Max” has left Apple Inc.’s 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 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:

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