On Monday, Apple released the first trailer for their new appropriately named reality TV show Planet of the Apps which involves hopeful app developers facing a panel of expert judges to pitch their ideas and go on to win a star prize.
Taking inspiration primarily from the shows Shark Tank (a franchise of the international format Dragon’s Den) and The Voice, competitors will pitch their unique app to the panel before choosing a mentor to see them through the process. For the developers, this could lead to a win of $10 million, funded by Lightspeed Partners, as well as a premium placement on the App Store. The idea for the show came from singer and producer Will.i.am who will also be a panel member alongside actress Gwyneth Paltrow, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and actress Jessica Alba. To some this may seem like a strange mix of “expert judges” but irregardless of their celebrity status, all have developed apps or startups with Paltrow founding lifestyle publication Goop and Alba creating Honest, a start-up for baby products.
In the two minute trailer, we’re teased with exactly what the show will bring. What we can gather is that developers have no more than 60 seconds to pitch a brief of their app by which time the panel of judges will make a gut-instinct decision about whether or not they like the idea. If multiple judges are interested, it is the app developer’s decision to choose who they’d like to work with. We can see just how much inspiration Will.i.am has taken from The Voice but what Planet of the Apps really seems to be lacking is the flair of the judge’s rotating red thrones.
There has still been no release date set for the show but Apple executive Eddy Cue mentioned that it should premier sometime around Spring with exclusive availability on both Apple Music and a forthcoming partnering app. It is expected that Apple Music’s gradual movement toward original TV will boost monthly subscriptions. Currently, the service has 20 million subscribers which is meagre when compared with the likes of Netflix’s 94 million and the 40 million users who use Spotify’s paid premium service. With this move, we can only guess that Apple are hoping to generate revenue from their digital service rather than relying on a market for smartphones that is becoming increasingly saturated.
This wasn’t the only news that Apple delivered at Recode’s Code Media conference. Cue, alongside developer Ben Silverman, also brought the audience’s attention to a second show, a spin-off of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke sketch that first came into fruition on The Late Show. According to Apple, they will expanding Corden’s hit idea to feature other presenters. You can watch the trailer for the proposed feature below.
