Writer/Director Sian Heder behind the Oscar winning movie, CODA, shown exclusively on AppleTV+ … [+]
AFP via Getty Images
Apple’s Oscar win with its streaming movie, CODA, on Apple TV+, has spotlighted Apple’s streaming service and its growing link to Hollywood.
However, most people are unaware that Apple’s relationship with Hollywood goes back to the mid-1980s. At that time, Apple had an actual evangelist in Hollywood whose role was to get Apple products placed in movies and TV series. Apple also had direct contact with top Hollywood executives, producers, and creatives dating back to the birth of the Mac in 1984.
Indeed, Apple provided Macs for various studio-based labs for use in helping them create more interactive content. Apple first got the Mac into Hollywood via its focus on desktop publishing as studio marketing departments began making more of their marketing campaigns on the Mac. However, they also helped the American Film Institute (AFI) with their role in preserving movie history by providing Macs to their labs, where Macs joined early PCs in working on film preservation projects.
In the mid-1990s, I had the privilege of addressing AFI, and then Apple CEO Gil Amelio introduced me as the night’s speaker. I addressed my vision of content moving to digital formats and how this could impact the movie industry. By that time, Apple was already pushing Hollywood towards using the Mac for special effects, and the Mac had started to gain serious uptake in many movie studios.
However, Steve Jobs’ interest in Hollywood predates the Mac. One of Steve Jobs hero’s was Sony’s co-founder, Akio Morito. Early in Apple’s history, Jobs got to know Mr. Morito when he was still CEO of Sony and they became friends. In fact, Jobs was so enamored with Sony and Mr. Morita that he considered naming the Mac, “MacMan”, a play on Sony’s Walkman, as Jobs was a big fan of the portable music player.
While Mr. Morito was highly focused on Sony’s hardware business during his tenure as CEO, in 1989, Sony bought what is now Sony Pictures.
At the time, this seemed like a significant deviation from Sony’s core business and competencies and left many people scratching their heads about this move by Sony to get into making movies.
I interviewed Mr. Morita a few years after this acquisition and asked him why he bought a movie studio. He told me that in his mind, “Movies are just software. Hardware is nothing if it does not have software to run it, and movies are software content that can run on Sony’s hardware.”
This remark by Mr. Morita was a very astute observation and a move predated by decades of the significant shift to digital movies and distribution that is now driving our world of streaming media.
Mr. Morita’s view of software aligned well with Steve Jobs’ view of the world. In my many discussions with Jobs over the years, he kept reminding me and those who would listen that Apple was first a software company. While Apple created hardware, Jobs was clear that it would be worthless without a great OS, UI, and applications. He spent much time creating Mac’s original OS and user interface making sure that it would be easy to use and highly effective on the Mac from the beginning.
When it comes to Apple’s emphasis on Apple TV+ and streaming media, Mr. Morita’s view of movies and content still drives Apple’s strategy set in place by Steve Jobs and highly influenced by Mr. Morita.
Given Apple’s strong push into streaming media, many have suggested that Apple needs to buy a movie studio themselves. I don’t believe this is in their future for two reasons.
The first reason is that when Sony bought the assets of Columbia Pictures in 1989, there was little movie content that could run on any hardware besides VCRs and TVs. So Sony bought what has become Sony Pictures in advance of creating their hardware in the future that could be used to create digital movies and content. Today, all major studios and hundreds of independent production studios make tens of thousands of movies and TV shows. And even individual content via YouTube and other creative services for use on all digital hardware is being made hourly.
This is also at the heart of the second reason it does not make sense for Apple to buy its own studio. CODA has proved this. Apple purchased the rights to this movie and put it through their proprietary TV+ content distribution service and has already reached an important goal of winning an Oscar. Therefore, they did not need a studio to create an Oscar-winning movie. Instead, it is more likely that Apple will accelerate its role as a streaming media content sleuth to build up the library of streaming media for Apple TV+ and continue to look for its next Oscar contender.
Although many see Apple as a newcomer to Hollywood, it has a long history of courting Hollywood. Over the years, Apple has learned a lot about how the movie business runs and how to win in Hollywood.
