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Beyond general claims about Apple TV+ as a loss-leader for device sales, this article argues that Apple’s now vertically integrated TV strategy also seeks to (1) expand streams of behavioural data within its services strategy and broader operations; (2) extend its brand through the cultural industries of film and television; and (3) strengthen the lock-in effects of the company’s ecosystem of hardware, software, and services by selling visions of seamless integration, convenience, and connectivity. In examining these other uses and values of television for Apple, I call critical attention to the growing importance of the ecosystem metaphor for conceptualizing the complexity, dynamism, and scale of big tech firms and their diverse operations, of which platform television is increasingly included. Such an analysis begins to paint a fuller portrait of the neglected case of Apple in television and media industry studies, as well as the under-examined role of television in studies of Apple.
Chip Crawford (Tue,) studied this question.