On Apple's original, unscripted TV show about the app economy
There’s been a lot of talk recently about Apple’s first piece of original TV content: no, not that scripted series starring Dr. Dre, but rather an unscripted TV show about the App Store and the iOS app economy. Of course, this could be a surprise victory for Cupertino, or it could be a Ping-style disaster Apple rushes to forget.
Sounds ... interesting
So this show is unscripted, and made up of interviews with professionals working in the app economy. It’s being produced by Ben Silverman and Will.i.am, two individuals who’re familiar with rolling out TV content (Silverman is one of the guys behind “Jane the Virgin”). And the series is expected to make its debut on the Apple TV’s tvOS platform, and potentially also inside of iTunes.
However, Apple’s Eddy Cue has discussed the anticipated series with a handful of publications, including The Hollywood Reporter. He said:
We’ve seen some really, truly inspiring and incredible stories from our developers in what they’ve done, where they come from, how they started and the problems they’ve solved.
- Eddy CueAnd Cue’s right: we’ve shared a lot of those stories right here, on AppAdvice. Although as Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes, there’s a heck of a lot of skepticism floating around the iOS community.
- Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) congrats to apple on what sounds from its description like the literal worst television show
- Mike Rundle (@flyosity) “I set the price at $4.99 and made a total of $349 after spending 5 months building it.” Roll credits.
- Kevin Nguyen (@knguyen) no tech company has failed disastrously at original content yet. time for Apple to step up!
Me? I’m not so sure, either. Apple’s the company behind many successes, but also a number of failures: don’t let iOS, OS X, and watchOS cloud your memories of Ping.
So far, Apple has declined to comment on how the series will be distributed, although Cue did note that he’d “certainly want everyone to be able to watch this on their TV, iPhones, and iPads,” signalling wider distribution than just tvOS. Of course, we’ll keep you posted with further information as we receive it.
