First 'Planet of the Apps' episode drops tonight, free to watch
Apple's first foray into original TV content, "Planet of the Apps," starts Tuesday night, with the first of ten episodes being made available for global streaming on Apple Music and iTunes at 9 p.m. Pacific.
The hotly anticipated debut comes nearly four months after SVP of Internet and Software Services Eddy Cue revealed a trailer for the show, saying it would launch in spring 2017.
According to Reuters, the first "Planet of the Apps" episode can be viewed by anyone through iTunes or the show's website. A new episode will be released every Tuesday, with viewership restricted to Apple Music subscribers starting next week.
The series is reminiscent of popular reality shows like "Shark Tank," in which independent developers from around the world pitch their ideas, in this case apps, to a panel of high-profile "mentors." Jessica Alba, Will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gary Vaynerchuck make up Apple's cast, while Apple Music DJ Zane Lowe makes an appearance as the show's emcee.
"The question when you have ideas is how to take those to fruition," Cue told Reuters. "Sometimes you may not know how, you might be afraid of what's involved. This really shows how that's possible."
On "Planet of the Apps," contestants 60 seconds to sell mentors in an "escalator pitch" that has them literally explaining their app idea as they ride down an escalator. Once at the bottom, panelists swipe left or right on an iPad to show their interest, or disinterest, in the developer. Mentors then work with selected contestants to refine their product in preparation of a pitch in front of Lightspeed Venture Partners, which is putting up more than $10 million to fund the winning app.
The first two episodes show developers peddling ideas for online shopping campus safety and school backpack apps, the report says. Since "Apps" is being streamed through Apple's music service, users are able to download apps featured in the show from the App Store.
"Apps" has been in production since late last year and is the first of two original programs created for distribution on the Apple Music platform. The second show, an adaptation of James Corden's hit "Carpool Karaoke" segment, missed an April launch date but is expected to debut later this year.
Apple screened a viewing of the pilot "Apps" episode at WWDC on Tuesday and will soon launch an advertising campaign on iTunes and the Apple.com home page.
The hotly anticipated debut comes nearly four months after SVP of Internet and Software Services Eddy Cue revealed a trailer for the show, saying it would launch in spring 2017.
According to Reuters, the first "Planet of the Apps" episode can be viewed by anyone through iTunes or the show's website. A new episode will be released every Tuesday, with viewership restricted to Apple Music subscribers starting next week.
The series is reminiscent of popular reality shows like "Shark Tank," in which independent developers from around the world pitch their ideas, in this case apps, to a panel of high-profile "mentors." Jessica Alba, Will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gary Vaynerchuck make up Apple's cast, while Apple Music DJ Zane Lowe makes an appearance as the show's emcee.
"The question when you have ideas is how to take those to fruition," Cue told Reuters. "Sometimes you may not know how, you might be afraid of what's involved. This really shows how that's possible."
On "Planet of the Apps," contestants 60 seconds to sell mentors in an "escalator pitch" that has them literally explaining their app idea as they ride down an escalator. Once at the bottom, panelists swipe left or right on an iPad to show their interest, or disinterest, in the developer. Mentors then work with selected contestants to refine their product in preparation of a pitch in front of Lightspeed Venture Partners, which is putting up more than $10 million to fund the winning app.
The first two episodes show developers peddling ideas for online shopping campus safety and school backpack apps, the report says. Since "Apps" is being streamed through Apple's music service, users are able to download apps featured in the show from the App Store.
"Apps" has been in production since late last year and is the first of two original programs created for distribution on the Apple Music platform. The second show, an adaptation of James Corden's hit "Carpool Karaoke" segment, missed an April launch date but is expected to debut later this year.
Apple screened a viewing of the pilot "Apps" episode at WWDC on Tuesday and will soon launch an advertising campaign on iTunes and the Apple.com home page.
Comments
Nowhere to be found on Iphone either
nothing on apple.com either...so far i have not been "exposed to this one way or another"
It look like everyone sat through it, and enjoyed it. People were laughing at funny parts (and some of the titles explaining what B2B and SKD mean. The drama of Reality TV was just what you'd expect, but (speaking as a non-fan of TV and especially hyper-dramatized Reality TV shows) it was fun to watch and held my attention. It actually is even fun to see stories unfold.
It's about app development and business, not personal drama and fighting.
The same goes for Car Karaoke. It helps promote artists and albums which helps promote Apple Music. Even Planet of the Apps is free if you subscribe to Apple Music.
update: it now appears in iTunes TV Shows App on Apple TV....still nowhere in Apple Music on Apple TV
YARS I presume.
Sorry to be negative but there is a large part of the Apple customer base that could not care less about this sort of thing.
If Apple want to create shows then they could at least make them with something for everyone. Then when you get established, something like this would not get the coverage. If this is a flop then could it be game over for Apple in this area? I think it could.
Here's my review posted on some other tech websites too immediately after viewing last night...
Watched it and it was fine. Like any major network reality tv production values. But some of the rejected app proposals really felt like the show writers made them up to fill in time. Some really stupid ideas.
Also the VC investor part felt like another show tacked on. They didn’t talk enough about the business models so the one chosen felt like they were already picked long before their escalator pitch.
I’ll watch next week just to see how the show works but it doesn’t look like it’s serialized like modern streaming TV so there’s no cliffhangers or storylines to keep me interested.
One cool thing is that every app featured is already on the App Store. It’s a little confusing because it’s not clear how long ago they shot the episodes. I suspect that the reason the show was pushed back from its original release date was not because the show wasn’t quite ready but because the apps aren’t quite ready. The whole show is really just a soft sell for the App Store. Not a terrible thing but then make it worthwhile TV if it’s just one giant commercial.