If you’re a tech company that isn’t making your own TV series then you’re not a tech company, these days. Hey, Facebook got a movie, it’s only fair. Planet of the Apps is Apple’s first TV series and their take on reality TV — coming across as an Idols for app developers (except nobody is going to be horribly off-key unless they slip down the escalator — you’ll see in a moment).
Confused? Don’t be. Apple is making a TV series, which will be broadcast on Apple’s Music service (so there’s a name-change coming soon then, Apple?), called Planet of the Apps. In the show, app developers have 60 seconds to pitch their app, while riding down an escalator for some reason. If they manage to convince one of the four celebrity judges to sponsor them (they can convince more than one but then contestants have to pick one) then the developers are in the running for a much bigger pitch — to Lightspeed Venture Partners, who give large amounts of money to very good ideas in tech.
Three of the celebrities involved will be familiar to just about anyone with an internet connection — Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Will.i.am are the known trio, with the last being Gary Vaynerchuck, an entrepreneur who has only ever appeared as himself on TV. That’s unusual, in this company, but the quartet have all started up their own companies. And now they’re going to jump-start others.
Crazy, right? And yet, watching the trailer, this totally looks like something that we could lose ourselves in — a MasterChef Australia for tech geeks, except you’re going to be less hungry when the show is over. Apple gets what looks like a well put-together show out of this deal and also perhaps the next big app. Either way, contestants will find themselves prominently features on Apple’s App Store. That fact alone will give any apps featured a shot in the arm.
If the show-runners somehow fail to include Charlton Heston’s famous line (go ask you parents, kids. Or Google. Google knows too) at some point then we’re going to count this as a missed opportunity. Otherwise, we’re going to watch this one when it launches. When? No idea, Apple hasn’t shared that just yet.