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Apple Planning To Make Original TV Shows and Movies as Hardware Sales Soften (venturebeat.com)
While investors seem to remain optimistic about the future of Apple, it's no secret that sales of its iconic hardware products have flatlined or fallen over the past year. From a report: We'll have to wait until January 31 to find out how the company performed over the critical holiday period. But for the moment, its most promising category of revenue has been "services," which includes things like Apple Music, and has been on a big winning streak over the past several quarters. Now it appears Apple is getting ready to make an even bigger bet in that category. According to a story just published by the Wall Street Journal, the company "has been in talks with veteran producers in recent months about buying rights to scripted television programs. It also has approached experienced marketing executives at studios and networks to discuss hiring them to promote its content." According to the story, the programming would be part of is Apple Music subscription ($6/month for an individual plan, $9 for a family plan.) The movie bit is deemed to be "more preliminary," according to the Journal.
Prices quoted in the summary are wrong. It's 9.99 for single user 14.99 for family. Either that or the currency symbol needs to be changed.
But that's what people want these days. I am absolutely sure it will be a huge success for Apple. (not being sarcastic)
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
> Apple Planning To Make Original TV Shows and Movies
They will release the most Apple story ever:
Cast: one man (nude), one women (nude), two angels with blazing swords, one bearded elder on sacred throne
Supporting roles: one snake, two apple trees, a son active in agriculture, another son who prefers animal husbandry
Script: licensed by people who call themselves chosen
Instead of making their core products better, Apple decides to spend time and money on stuff that most likely will
be a waste of time and money and will bring NO benefit to the world.
Somebody, please tell me why Tim Cook is worthy of being the CEO of Apple, because from where I sit it looks like
he is leading the company into the abyss.
( maybe Tim Cook and Marissa Mayer can compare notes when it's all over )
Each show will feature bearded hipsters from San Francisco, dialog about organic food, and indie music from pitchfork.
An apple movie? How about a remake of:
I, Robot? I, Frankenstein? I know what you did last summer? I married an axe murderer?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
and do better with your hardware.
Oh yeah, it'll sell like hotcakes, obviously. No doubt about it.
Eat the rich.
It will be the most offensively inoffensive show ever produced.
Eat the rich.
"While investors seem to remain optimistic about the future of Apple, it's no secret that sales of its iconic hardware products have flatlined or fallen over the past year..."
I see that the kitsch of paying 3x more for fashionable hardware tends to succumb to the same thing last years clothing line falls victim to; becoming outdated and unpopular.
Will the content be totally about promoting so-called "Social Justice" philosophies and ideals?
We've seen a lot of content like that being produced lately. We've seen long-established characters changed to a different race or gender or sexual preference or some other trait just to make the content more "inclusive", even if it makes no sense within story lines or established canon. Or we've seen new characters created with a trait like their gender, race, or sexual preference as their main defining characteristic, solely so focus can be put on it, and the rest of the character pretty much ignored.
Now is probably the wrong time to be dealing with such content. The American public, at least, is getting sick and tired of having this sort of crap forced on them at every opportunity by the media. Even in Europe, which has long been a stronghold of "Social Justice" philosophy, is getting very tired of all of it after dealing with the illegal aliens who have forced their way into those nations, only to commit crimes and terrorist attacks.
I can't see how there would be a solid future to this, especially from a financial standpoint, if they're force-feeding leftist ideology to an ever-shrinking portion of the populace. America is swinging to the right. The UK is swinging to the right. Europe is swinging to the right. Australia is swinging to the right. The majority of the citizens of the major markets that would pay for and consume "Social Justice" content are all moving away from those leftist ideologies. I don't see how giving them content they don't want and won't buy will succeed.
If this content avoids the "Social Justice" narrative, and perhaps even questions it and tears it apart, then it may have a chance for success. Otherwise, I can't see it being a success.
oh wait, it's in San Francisco.
Don't be fooled by misleading info based on investor's expectations. A company with hundreds of billions in cash, and sales in the the tens of billions per quarter is as strong as ever. Obviously, investors want to see "growth", as in "growth in return on investment". If sales are flat they will go elsewhere, which is fine: Apple will still sell billions worth of hardware every year, people will still buy them, employees will get paid, tax will be owed. Imagine a company that has flat sales of 30B per year. Nott too shabby, yet investors will cry agonize over why this company id doomed. Come to your sense, get a life, and move on.
Politically correct speech, lotsa Apple products in the background, and subtle propaganda supporting Tim Cook's political belief's.
I'm sure this is exactly what Steve Jobs had in mind before passing... He must be turning over in his grave at what Tim's done to his legacy.
Not that I'm typical, but I recently purchased my first Windows machine in 10 years. Apple has dumbed their devices and OS down too much for me. Add to this their increasing prices and lack of direction, and I think we're headed back towards Mac clones before too long.
Ah... The glory days of Apple. Remember when they used to be relevant?
Tim Cook: Oh no! Hardware sales are falling! What can we do?
exec: Stop making stupid hardware and go back to making stuff people actually want?
Tim Cook: No no that can't be it. We've just saturated the market so we need to start doing something else.
Ah... The glory days of Apple. Remember when they used to be relevant?
Remember the glory days of Microsoft? Those are over too. Once upon a time, they asked "Where do you want to go today?" Now, they just say "We know where you've been and what you're doing right now."
The cake is a lie.
Thin actors only and no unions!
If Apple wants to be a services and software oriented company and move away from making hardware, fine... but please, for all that is good, open up support for MacOS onto standard PC hardware so us Mac users can get on with life without struggling with under powered and antiquated hardware for no good reason.
Also, while you are at it, please work out whatever issues you have with Nvidia and help them release their pascal drivers on MacOS...
Thank you,
A concerned long time customer that is very much not alone.
So... everyone is making their own original content. What I've seen from Amazon and Netflix is often quite good. Will it end up like TV where they will syndicate each other's old seasons or do they hold out so you'll subscribe for a few months to each of them to rotate through binging their series in turn? I subscribe to Netflix because I find enough to watch, we have Prime Video as a value-add to Amazon Prime... we'll sign back up for HBO Now to watch GoT and plan to binge Westworld in between episodes of GoT. It seems like there'll be some conglomeration of some kind as the competition gets more entrenched.
I really want to subscribe to original programming aimed at insufferable douchebags. Oh wait, no I don't.
Agreed. TV for fanboys and snowflakes.
"Puffy the Android Slayer"
"Game of Scones -A Starbuck's Saga"
"I, Phone" - Humans and robot phones live in a future dystopia
"Family Guys" - A story of a transgender fluid girl and her eleven dads and 2 1/2 mothers.
Calling Cook the Ballmer of Apple is an insult to Ballmer because at least Ballmer consistently raised revenues and profits and demonstrated a deep commitment to Microsoft's core markets. The fact is that putting Steve Ballmer in charge of Apple now would make more sense than keeping Cook. Ballmer would probably have a better shot of resurrecting the Mac's nose-diving reputation than Cook at this point.
I'll believe Apple are committed to light entertainment when either money changes hands or actual shows start appearing.
Until then, this looks like another attempt to manipulate the stock price.
X86, allow installs on non apple hardware.
Among the sizzling innovations in the new Apple programming will be that you can no longer turn off your TV or stop playback once you've started an episode, it will automatically perform "updates" of your platform to prevent non-Apple content being played back in the future, and you will need to sign over your firstborn and put your house up as collateral to create a streaming account in the first place.
Isn't that what everyone said when Netflix started making shows? Turned out OK for them.
There is a lot of content out there. A lot of it is garbage. A lot of shows are canned because they aren't popular *enough* for a particular demographic. Or because a network head doesn't like a producer, or production company, or director.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Nah, Apple is in California, it will be shows about how cool SF-bay area is instead of say LA or NYC.
If tech companies want to fund TV shows, they are welcome to do so, but I dare say that we need less "bland" and more cutting edge. If Apple wants to get ahead, they should be funding the next Star Trek, banning reality shows, and producing cartoons, as that is in their wheelhouse (remember who had Pixar?)
That said, the kind of content that Netflix and Amazon have produced has been kinda.... eh.
The Man in the High Castle (Amazon) was pretty good for what it was, but you'd never get even HBO to fund something like that, because it's so full of intentionally racist/anti-semite language. And half of it takes place in Japanese-Occupied San Francisco (the other half in a Nazi-occupied NYC that you wouldn't recognize.)
A lot of the TV shows that Netflix has been producing (eg The 100) have also been pretty violent, but that is what it is (a show that is basically Lord of the Flies with the setting of post-nuclear holocaust North America)
Neither of these shows would ever have seen the light of day if they were produced by NBC/CBS/etc because those networks have to be essentially kid friendly at all times. HBO probably could have produced The 100, but I'm absolutely sure the Man in the High Castle would be too risky for even them.
Apple, I'd suspect would want to produce only films that are stylish/tech-savvy since they could put their own products in it. That is something that Amazon and Netflix can't do (although I've seen a fair bit of "product placement" of Amazon boxes in various anime, I wouldn't put it past Amazon actually licencing anime like Netflix has.) Japanese anime is also fond of Apple devices, though typically the logos are changed into things that aren't really Apple iconography.
Lots of shows and movies about how awesome Apple is...
I'm trying to figure out what market Apple is targeting. It sure isn't the 14 to 24 group.
Presumably they'll patent the whole concept and put netflix out of business.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Mmm, windows 10 spying, the second most original joke floating around just behind oooooo samsung phones explode all the time.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
They already made Queer as Folk.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Maybe they could do a series ala Seinfeld, but the characters could spend every show looking for their mis-placed wireless AirPods.
The first episode features a walk-on part about this guy who rediscovers vinyl music recordings and that crates of em were being sold or as a curb alert. If that walk-on didn't star Christopher Walken in a speaking role then the series is DOA
young and beautiful people going to national parks and taking pictures for the Photo's app. even the old people will be young and beautiful. and diverse of course.
no fat people though.
Netflix recently remade "One Day at a Time" with a Latino family.
For Hollywood, reselling the same crap in a new box has always been a ticket to profit, or at least less loss. And the egos in Hollywood like to believe that their shows somehow contain a kernel of universal truth.
So I'm pretty sure the thinking is along the lines of "there's a whole bunch of Latinos who probably never saw One Day at a Time. If we remake it with a Latino cast, we can recycle 9 years of scripts for the cost of writing 2 years of an original program, and ODaaT was successful because of its timeless and placeless insights into the human condition, so of course Latinos will lap it up with a Latino cast. We'll make millions."
It's really no different than the recycling of Japanese horror movies into American horror movies, or, really, these modern versions of Shakespeare plays that get turned out once in a while, or even "The Office".
& how much courage will be needed for this?
Do you really think many people here are interested in indonesian-translated japanimation?
Unfortunately these days it is just the next earnings statement that matters. 3 months at a time is all the planning that's needed.
No. The joke is on you.
Wow, Apple has jumped the shark before even producing their first episode.
Maybe declining revenue from hardware sales could instead be addressed by a return to offering compelling and valuable hardware choices for the consumer to purchase.
(/me waits for news that Apple's new content was produced using tools from Adobe or Avid)
And one that often gets me downvoted since Mac users don't like to hear it: Apple is a fashion company. That's why they've been able to do what they do. In fashion, a higher price can be a GOOD thing not a bad thing, whereas consumer electronics are one of the most notoriously price sensitive markets out there.
However the downside is as you say: What is fashionable changes and it is really hard to stay on top of it forever.
To be pedantic, The 100 was actually created by a "kid friendly" network - The CW - if you can call it that (though its programming is more targeted to teens and adolescents) and Netflix is only licensing it for distribution. So to say only Netflix is producing shows of this kind is wrong. Hell if you watch Arrow you'll see some pretty decent violence as that's just how straightforward the character is
That "as hardware sales soften" is pure editorializing. The author is linking this initiative with hardware sales for his own reasons.
People with money.
For music, we don't have to go further than the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus and their long history with the city.
If Apple can play their cards right and plan accordingly, this can be a wonderful asset (and beacon) for the worldwide GLBTQ community.
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
We get to hear all about how piracy is killing Apple, Beeeeeeelions in lost profits, the company is tanking on account of all of these freeloaders watching our content for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
We need a host of new laws on the books to protect us all from these criminal consumers!
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
Frankly, Apple is fucked -- Tim Cook was a good lackey for Jobs, but has not sense of purpose or direction The smart move would have been for him to find a younger, brilliant, "jobs-like" replacement that he could have mentored Instead, Cook tried to be Jobs and has in a few short years lost momentum and marketability across all of Apple's products Within a few more years, Apple will be back to downsizing and begging for money to live
But how does this happen in practice? Same movie is released every year with shinier title graphics and new episode number?
Don't forget the documentary about a young visionary from Dubai who started a computer company named after Figs: Steve
You: "I don't like this TV show from the Apple network."
S. Jobs: "You're watching it wrong!"
Table-ized A.I.
Dear Apple,
How about making products your customers actually want? Like a MacBook Pro that's actually a pro-level computer. Or, a "Cheesegrater" Mac Pro with Thunderbolt and USB 3/3.1?
See, here's the deal: no one wanted the trash-can Mac Pro. We wanted the existing model with the I/O capabilities you put in your home-user machines. But, it's too late. You've lost us. We're tired of paying premium prices for last-years already outdated technology.
And you guys are really missing the bus with your lack of VR-compatible hardware. Sure, VR might be a flash in the pan, but isn't the fact that you make NOTHING with the CPU/GPU power to support it worrying?
Yours,
RatBastard, a former Mac customer.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Hey, I liked Spock! And Leonard Nimoy was just weird-looking enough to remind you he was an alien.
Hey, if you don't like 1930s movies, then stop watching them. It's not my fault you get "triggered" whenever you see a black maid flanderized in a movie. The casting director needed someone to play "the help," and they chose a black woman. Get over it, or if you really can't stand the sight of that, then maybe movies aren't for you. At least there's a lot less of the thing you're complaining about happening these days, than in your great grandparents' days.
Nobody has anything forced on them. The left always mis-uses the word "force." Get over it, kid: you opted in to your entertainment. People who don't opt into that, are probably watching something else. I think you may be a closet SJW. If you weren't, you would have pressed the channel-up or channel-down button on your remove long ago. Own up to your guilty pleasure; you'll feel better. Come out. I'm not into what you're into, but like I always say, different strokes for different folks. (If you people on left would adopt that attitude, we'd get along a lot better.)
Apparently you missed our most recent election, where American voters chose a New-Dealer for president, and while whiners complain that the more conservative candidate won the popular vote, the New-Dealer understood the electoral game and won fair'n'square. He ran on tariffs and other things whereby the government is going to become a lot more involved in micro-managing the economy than it had been back in the (relatively) anarcho-capitalist free-market Obama days.
The election showed that America was getting tired of, or more likely scared of, the right wing's "race to the bottom." So the voters went left and demanded more government intervention in life. (Personally, I still advocate what they call the "race to the bottom," because "bottom" totally misses that cheapness itself is a measure of increased productivity, and ultimately productivity is what makes an economy strong. Also, laissez-faire in the economy translates to laissez-faire in domestic policy too, so that's how you maximize civil rights.) But Trump says we're too productive, too free, and the left (using the amusing label "alt right," I guess because you can't get much more alternative to the right than this) ate that up and said "we can change!"
The result: prepare to see a lot more of what you just complained about. The "help" will be a black woman again.
Each show will feature bearded hipsters from San Francisco, dialog about organic food, and indie music from pitchfork.
Sounds better than most of the TV out there.
Next thing, Google will get in on making original network content.
Shouldn't Apple be focusing on making the iPhone more robust or something?
I want to do what Amazon, Netflix and Hulu do!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Except Microsoft never stopped being relevant. Apple on the other hand is on the cusp of becoming irrelevant.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
PF has been 70% hip hop, trap, and alt-r&b for a few years now. They've kind of fucked up the indie scene. Now most "indie" kids are into the same exact shit every other basic Kanye/Drake/Weeknd worshipping guy and girl is along with a few of the same most popular indie artists/bands.
Japanese anime still uses old rectangular iconic 'keitai' designs. Apple featured more in early anime from the 90s, shows such as Serial Experiments Lain and Magical Girl Pretty Sammy where Sasami's brother uses a "pineapple" computer against Biff Standard's "Stanardsoft". Apple is dead last in current anime in terms of laptops and computers too.
But you have to buy an adapter to hear the people speaking..
Each show will feature bearded hipsters from San Francisco, dialog about organic food, and indie music from pitchfork.
Hunh? Google will make shows?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Apple is the Disney of Computers. Take something already out there, preferably unencumbered by Patents(Copyrights), and repackage it.
aka Reboots.
So, the Apple slogan was think different, revolutionize and now is just to generate money. This and other few things indicates that inertia of SJ is slowly fading out. They do nothing in last 5 years apart from the chairmans sharing enormous salaries. It is really sad. SJ wanted to redo TV, education but they touch none of those. Now they want to make movies? Wtf. That is really inovative and revolutionary. It just show that they have no clue what they are doing with company. If iPhone 8 fails (be the same as three last iphone) I think that would be the final sign what future is going to be for Apple.
... Timmy-kins running around the stage chanting "directors, directors, directors, directors."
(for those of you who didn't get the reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE)