Apple has recently announced its plans to release original TV content on their Apple Music platform. They have released a trailer for one of their original shows called “Planet of the Apps”, a non-scripted reality TV show. From the looks of the trailer, it’s the spunky lovechild of Shark Tank and the Voice. Four celebrities, ehem, four of the world’s culturally influential entrepreneurs – will.i.am, Jessica Alba, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The show seems to be panned by a lot, from the software development community to actual Apple employees, even! I feel their pain as I think this new reality show is a backhanded slap to a dying independent software developer community.

Bastardization?
The app store has the same ecosystem as other mainstream media like movies, music, and books. There will always be popular, chart-topping, best-selling content, but not a lot of consumers think these are just the tip of the industry iceberg. As a musician, I find reality shows like these to be really misguided. I never once thought that quality music and artistry can exclusively be found in American Idol or The Voice.

“App developers are the new rock stars”, said will.i.am. What’s that even supposed to mean? I’ve always disliked the term rock star because it implies that the only way to make a substantial amount of difference is to make it big enough without any consideration to the actual impact that you can produce in your community – and in a grander scheme of things, the world. The reality show seems to gloss nonchalantly over a quite difficult job.

Credibility?

When I first heard about who the “mentors” are going to be, I honestly raised my left eyebrow, which I can rarely do. No doubt, they are influential and successful but they don’t have much app development experience compared to other credible tech entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Linden Tibetts, or Jack Dorsey. It seems to me that Planet of the Apps target audience aren’t entrepreneurs but smartphone users. Then again, this is a reality TV show which aims to cook up its entertainment value by putting scenes of hard work into digestible sizes while downplaying the effort, persistence, and skills to be successful. For a reality show, it’s quite out of touch with “reality”. I guess this is how real chefs feel about Hell’s Kitchen.

Will I watch this show?

Probably not. Will it be entertaining for non-app developers? Likely. Could it harm the perception of what developers really do for a living? It will, eventually. If Apple wants to gain a significant share in the original TV content market, they should take notes from Netflix: produce quality content. Think Chef’s Table, which I personally believe is the antithesis of Hell’s Kitchen. Gordon Ramsay is entertaining to watch but nothing moves me better than a great story. As for Planet of the Apps antithesis, I think I’d stick with Silicon Valley for now.

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