[alrs]

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...

[dkasper]

If it were just pro that would be one thing, but when I saw “Pro Max” I instantly thought of Apple.

[alrs]

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