Mixed reviews for Apple’s first attempt with online TV
EVEN as Apple sought to wow the public this week by announcing loads of new hardware and software updates, the tech company was preparing for a major new experiment in a very different part of its business: online television.
On Tuesday, Apple debuted the first episode of its new reality show featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am, Jessica Alba and the entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk as a panel of judges. Known as “Planet of the Apps,” the show places fresh-faced app developers on the spot for a chance at winning funding and a promising future.
Contestants have one minute to deliver an “escalator pitch” to the judges on an actual moving walkway; if they survive the round, they may win mentoring from a judge before making another pitch to a venture capital firm.
Companies as diverse as AT&T, Facebook and CBS are all tinkering with ways to attract viewers to their online videos. This exclusive content provides companies with a potentially lucrative ad-revenue stream as more Americans shift their Internet consumption to digital video, particularly on mobile devices.
More than half of all mobile Internet consumption is taken up by video today, according to a recent report by the networking company Cisco. That figure is expected to grow to 78 per cent by 2021.
“Planet of the Apps” reflects a big bet on the future of Apple’s app-driven ecosystem. For years, Apple has touted the popularity of its app store and its role in creating a whole new cottage industry of programmers. By highlighting the nuts and bolts of conceiving and pitching an app, Apple gives new, nascent entrepreneurs a better peek into the industry that helps sustain the company’s profits. (Apple takes a 30 per cent cut of every app sold from its App Store, adding up to US$28 billion (RM120 billion) a year in revenue.)
But on the show, that obsession with process often comes at the expense of the elements that typically make reality TV click, according to some critics.
“The biggest problem with ‘Planet of the Apps’ is that it doesn’t know what it’s selling - which should be the contestants,” wrote Maureen Ryan, Variety’s chief TV critic, in a review. “It should turn them into compelling TV characters and make their quests dramatic, but it does a mediocre-to-poor job on those fronts.”
Still, many are willing to give “Planet of the Apps” a chance, particularly those who are part of or already familiar with the tech industry.
“As a tech entrepreneur myself, I found it to be super compelling, accurate, and inspiring!” wrote one commenter, Namon Eugene, on Variety’s review. “I think you have to be in the tech world to appreciate the show.” — Washington Post
The biggest problem with ‘Planet of the Apps’ is that it doesn’t know what it’s selling - which should be the contestants. It should turn them into compelling TV characters and make their quests dramatic, but it does a mediocre-to-poor job on those fronts. — Maureen Ryan, Variety’s chief TV critic