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This is pretty interesting, but an app is a long way from a real business. There's no point in getting these celeb businesspeople in, because the app won't really be "a business."

Has an app ever scaled to the financial level of Paltrow's and Alba's stuff? For 99.9999999% of them the answer is "no."
 
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So her company "The Honest Company" lied about the ingredients in their products, using synthetic ingredients in their all natural products.

Apple picks her for a mentor?


http://www.mensjournal.com/health-f...onest-companys-toxic-scandal-matters-20160318
Their laundry detergent on their website lists methylisothiazolinone as a preservative. That's another dodgy ingredient that is being investigated as a potent allergen and cytotoxin with negative environmental impact. I would have hoped that a person truly concerned with public health and safety and with the power of her good name backing such an endeavor as this would research all of her products' main ingredients before approving them. I don't expect her to become a biochemist overnight, but she should at least work to become aware of any controversial ingredients. It is something an assistant should be able to do for her, at least.

But that's way off topic.

I just find this whole Planet of the Apps premise...I don't even have words for it. I'm beginning to appreciate the value of emojis to express some reactions I just can't find the right words to express. This whole concept is so...:confused: That's exactly the expression my face contorts into every time I read an article about Planet of the Apps.

If this thing goes on to become a big success, great. I don't wish failure on anybody but tyrants and psychopaths. I just can't help my :confused: reaction to the whole...thing. It is such a "thing". I can't even...ugh.

And Will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba...now that's an :confused: combination with a little bit of :eek: thrown in.

And can this forum please get a poop emoji? Just for all Planet of the Apps threads? ;)
 
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In fairness, I think a lot of people who had been using Honest products for years didn't know it was her company. They just liked the products. I sure didn't know, and my wife used them all the time. but then it made sense why she rarely acts anymore, since she has a billion dollars.

She rarely acts because she's a d-lister. Her latest movie opened at #5 last weekend and that was solely because of Jason Statham.
 
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I probably won't watch, because I'm not a fan of "reality" TV. I think most of them are partly scripted, if not entirely. A few years ago I watched an episode of one because the CEO of the company I work for was the star. It was a business rescue kind of show. Some of the drama was created by an unhappy customer who walked in off the street and didn't find what he needed. At the end of the show a different random customer was shown saying how happy he was with his new purchase. Both of these "customers" were actually employees of the company. One was in the room with me when I watched the episode. I also was aware of much of the bogus IT work involved in rebuilding this business in a matter of weeks.

The genre is not for me. That's not to say it can't be successful, and Apple's effort may be. The show with my boss is currently in its fourth season.
 
AHHHHH AHAH HAHHAHA! This show is just full of "business people". Hey guys be like me, I made millions then started a business. My business is a success because I make quality products, not because I am a famous person."

Oh man....this is just getting soooo pathetic. Blind leading the blind.
 
In fairness, I think a lot of people who had been using Honest products for years didn't know it was her company. They just liked the products. I sure didn't know, and my wife used them all the time. but then it made sense why she rarely acts anymore, since she has a billion dollars.

It's not just the end-consumers... she's going to be able to get attention and consideration from distributors and retailers that no-name people won't. She has an advantage just getting her product on a self where you can buy it. (Not that that would help if it was a bad product. I assume from the success that it's generally good stuff.) I imagine a household name would help generally in negotiations, promotional opportunities, and other general business activities. People at whatever level are going to be more willing to take her call and listen once they have.
 
I can't imagine anything being more garbage than this show. What exactly is Apple hoping to accomplish with this?

They are hoping to accomplish getting lots of audience eyeballs for their advertising. Reality TV has nothing to do with reality. It's only a way make up an entertaining enough fake story to keep certain buying demographics from hitting the channel change button to quickly. If you know anything about "reality" (e.g. apps), you know too much to be the target audience.

Therefore this show has little to do with "apps" or mentoring, only the appearance of such to get a mostly clueless audience to think they are learning something about apps long enough that they unconsciously remember the product placements and/or forget to skip the commercials.

Maybe some hormone poisoned teens will be fooled into thinking that downloading Xcode and learning Swift or UX design will help them meet more girls who look like Ms. Alba. Or even give some girls a fake role model that's a little more techie/STEM oriented (not a bad thing...).
 
Looking forward to the jumping the shark app.

fonziejumpsshark3sl.gif
 
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Jessica Alba has been acting since she was a child. The first show/movie I recall ever seeing her in was The New Flipper and that show was campy at best.
Since she has spent most of her adolescence and all of her adult life in Hollywood, we can pretty much guarantee she is not connected to the real world. After a while, these celebs really begin to believe their own press releases and think everything they touch will turn to gold even though they have ZERO experience in whatever they are trying to create/hawk/develop.

Jessica Alba is quickly on her way to become the female version of Shawn Pen.
 
How do we KNOW Apple is making this thing, or even behind it? People talking like they've released official information regarding it.
 
Despite the issues in the company, to her credit, the Honest company does appear to be worth a good bit of money. She has been pretty successful there ($$$). The following piece is fluffy of course, but does provide a little background if anyone is interested. I was trying to figure out just what 'founder' meant. http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015/11/jessica-alba-honest-company-business-empire

However... I still can't understand how this background makes her qualified to mentor app developers. I must not understand who this show is for. I would much rather have the mentors be serial successful app developers than celebrity business people.

The key to a successful product, or apps, is not tech, but marketing and sales, communications, distributions.
The goal is selling a product/service, not making an app/product.
Why business fail is that techheads in startups forget this.

That includes being attuned to the market and being able to translate unmet needs into products.
Jobs was basically more in the product definition side of marketing than anything else.
But, he was also a very good straight up marketing guy.
Having a good idea is worth nothing if you can't sell it.
 
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I probably won't watch, because I'm not a fan of "reality" TV. I think most of them are partly scripted, if not entirely. A few years ago I watched an episode of one because the CEO of the company I work for was the star. It was a business rescue kind of show. Some of the drama was created by an unhappy customer who walked in off the street and didn't find what he needed. At the end of the show a different random customer was shown saying how happy he was with his new purchase. Both of these "customers" were actually employees of the company. One was in the room with me when I watched the episode. I also was aware of much of the bogus IT work involved in rebuilding this business in a matter of weeks.

The genre is not for me. That's not to say it can't be successful, and Apple's effort may be. The show with my boss is currently in its fourth season.

I agree; it's more like "unreality" TV. Plus, I'm not sure what she'll "mentor" the developers about. How to get investors or how to market the apps?
 
I don't understand... Will Jessica Alba be the one saying "YOU'RE FIRED!!!"?
(sorry couldn't help myself)
 
Well, of all the people associated with this ClusterF so far, she's the least annoying, but that's not a high bar.
 
I don't quite agree it's that important, troubling, or offensive; it's only a show, after all.

Regardless, "chorus of curmudgeons" had me laughing hard.

It is not "only a show."

It is prima facie evidence of Tim and the board's lack of focus, and the loss of SJ's cardinal rule: knowing when to say no to a product, because it's not the best possible use of that energy.

Never mind the fact that the entire "app economy" is a scam. The top 0.01% of apps take nearly every dollar of revenue. Follow even the most famous and well respected indie devs on Twitter for a month, and you'll get a taste for just what a joke the App Store is by any measure that matters to app developers.
 
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