Apple's First Original TV Series Sounds an Awful Lot Like an Ad for the App Store

Instead, the company is working on a "non-scripted series about apps," the New York Times reports.

So, basically a reality show or documentary about the products that fill up the digital marketplaces built into iPhones. Does that make it original programming or an extended commercial?

Apple has long touted its role in the "app economy" earlier this year, the company claimed its App Store had "brought in nearly $40 billion (roughly Rs. 2,67,108 crores) for developers since 2008." And company executives are talking about this new series; it appears they may use the show to highlight the benefits of the app industry that Apple sparked.

"One of the things with the app store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things," Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue told the Times.

Apple is working with musician Will.i.am, who is a tech entrepreneur of sorts himself, and television executives Howard Owens and Ben Silverman on the app show. But practically everything else, including when it will debut and even the show's title, remain unknown.

Apple has had some experience with exclusive programming related to music in the past, including a documentary about Taylor Swift's "1989" world tour that was released on Apple Music late last year. Industry watchers have long speculated that Apple would follow in the footsteps of Netflix and Amazon in producing its own original video projects.

But it's not clear that this app series is actually a step in that direction. In fact, the company appears to be downplaying that chatter.

"This doesn't mean that we are going into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that," Cue told the Times.

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