When Apple CEO Tim Cook stood on stage last year and proclaimed, “The future of TV is apps,” we didn’t think he meant it this literally.
Apple is producing an unscripted original television show about apps, according to the New York Times. There’s no word yet on how consumers will be able to watch the show, but it’ll probably be available via apps.
Apple is collaborating with the musician will.i.am and TV producers Ben Silverman and Howard Owens to develop the project. Most details are being kept under wraps, but Apple content chief Eddy Cue did hint to the Hollywood Reporter that the show will examine how apps in the Apple app store came about.
It’s easy to imagine a series in which each episode spotlights a different app, looking closely at how it was created, with interviews with its developers. That could be interesting, but it wouldn’t exactly be an ambitious move from the tech company that made its mark making ambitious moves. An Apple show about apps is as safe as it gets.
But perhaps safety is the point. Just as Apple is making a scripted show with Dr. Dre in part to help market the Apple Music streaming service, Apple’s app show could serve as a marketing device for the app store, or perhaps the new Apple TV. Cue told the New York Times that the app series doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple is going to expand into bigger movie or TV projects. For now, the company seems content to stay in its comfort zone.
Meanwhile Apple’s much more ambitious TV endeavor—an internet television service, akin to Sling TV or Playstation Vue—is on pause after the company had a hard time securing deals with enough networks to make such a service worthwhile.