Observing 'Apple TV+'
Discussing the nitty-gritty of Apple TV+, how it differs from other OTT platforms, and how Apple aims to place it.
Welcome back! Today for Understanding Nuances, we bring forward to you an analysis on Apple TV+. We talk about how Apple aims to place this product of its and our observations of the product. And although you need to be an iOS user to experience what we have written down, the points this article talks about will help you see and understand how Apple treats its products and customers. So, without wasting any of your time, we'll begin!
Apple TV+ was launched by Apple 2 years ago amid the exponential growth of OTT platforms across the globe. The strategy behind the launch of Apple TV+ (as released by the company) was - 'Our mission for Apple TV Plus is to bring you the best original stories from the most creative minds in television and film.'
A space where streaming wars between media companies are at peak, and every major player is starting up its streaming service, Apple TV+, with its limited content, could very well fall behind. But wait, do they really want to compete with other streaming services? Or is it something they are doing to avoid FOMO or whatever? Anyways, these questions are beyond our scope to answer, and hopefully, Apple executives and Tim Cook understand their long term strategy much better than you and I.
Today we want to call out some details and observations from using Apple TV+ on iOS.
Apple TV+ has a very strange resemblance to Netflix UI (see the image below). It has just one navigation bar with categories in the vertical section and similar episodes in stacked horizontal sections for each category. As I said, just like Netflix due to lack of content on Apple TV+(:P), sometimes you see a famous show occupying the whole horizontal section.
Although you get a one-year free subscription to Apple TV+ on purchase of iPhone, iPad or MacBook, you still have to pay to rent a movie or watch content outside of Apple TV+ production.
Apple is betting heavily on original content (investing up to 1 billion dollars on an original production, roping in famous stars and directors), all for the cost of 4.99 dollars per month, which is relatively cheap when compared to other OTT networks.
Did I tell you - You also get access to all the latest Apple events when you scroll down to explore categories. Something which is very specific to Apple and can only be implemented by them.
It's not a very convoluted UI and is limited in content as well. Then what makes it appealing? It's not justified to do a show review here and spoil things, but I have to admit that Apple TV+ shows are unique and different from other TV shows I have watched on other platforms. They are very modern, updated and based on social themes. The Morning Show - Season 2 (recently released) includes the COVID pandemic in its storyline. Ted Lasso has social themes around toxic masculinity and staying happy, optimistic.
Since we are talking about shows, do you know these shows are buffed with Apple products? You can see at least one apple product in every 2 min of The Morning Show or Ted Lasso. What an amazing move! They are replicating the childhood scenario where we want to be like the stars and heroes in the movie, and the first step we used to take to become a hero was to have the appearance and things like the hero. Very well reciprocated!
There’s a lot that can be written ahead, but we are still exploring this content space and will be talking about Apple TV+ and other streaming services in future. This was it for today; I hope you like these small observations and their business sense.
We’ll be seeing you next week with another teardown. Until then, if you enjoyed today’s article and found it insightful, do share ‘Understanding Nuances’ among your friends and peers!