One question seems to continue to buzz around the heads of the entertainment industry over the last 12 months: ‘who is the next Steve Jobs?’. To help answer the great question, Simon Cowell of American Idol-fame and Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am are reportedly teaming up to find technology’s next great visionary via a new reality TV show.
Image: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
BBC is reporting that Cowell and Will.I.Am are working on “The X Factor For Tech”, having recently met to discuss the idea face to face. It’s something that would only be run in the UK and I imagine they’d get enthusiastic start-up folks through to pitch for their lives and make the cut.
I was just about to say something along the lines of ‘OMFG FAIL what a stoopid idea lololol!!1‘, but then I stopped and thought again.
Despite the fact that reality TV is awful, “the next Steve Jobs” is likely to want to play things up for the cameras. He was a great showman, after all, so why shouldn’t the one who follows in his footsteps be equally as keen to play it up for the cameras? [BBC]
I... Don't get it.
If they pitched it as start-ups squaring off in an apprentice-ish kind of manner, maybe... But what are they looking for? The guy in front of the camera (ie, businessman), or a techie.
I just don't get it. Then again, I don't get reality TV. At all. Ever.
WTF*ck..??
Yes... Good way to steal ideas then implement them yourself.
Don't you need a tech visionary to find a new tech visionary? I don't think that creators of a reality TV show qualify, but eh.
Last edited October 5, 2012 4:01 pm
This could get very interesting! There isn't really a tech show like this. Like I said, this could get interesting!
yeah seem there just looking for a junior tech visionary who has a dream and clever marketing. can already see the winner of the show been a sort of one hit wonder...cant exactly see them crowning some x factor champion and them working straight into the role of ceo of microsoft or something
I never watch garbage TV like X-factor or similar moron-bait, but I believe their strategy is generally to manufacture a market for their "winners" using the audience from their shows as well as through the cross marketing deals that the show gives them access to- all under the false banner of "looking for talent."
Basically the people they squeeze out would be very unlikely to float to the top in a real world situation.
Given that, it's hard to see how they could possibly have much to do with finding "another Steve Jobs".
The only crossover I can see was that since Jobs became a massmedia darling in the last decade of his life, all this show might be looking for is simply another nerdy person with a sort of "cool" air about them that the media and their audience love madly. There is no other correlation.
Last edited October 5, 2012 5:13 pm
I personally don't see this working. Do you actually listen to the winner of x-factor's music? All the good singers come from the underground, exactly where steve jobs and bill gates came from. The next real tech visionary won't come from a reality TV show but rather build their company from the ground up...
So it's basically Dragon's Den?
A real visionary won't need to be found via a TV show. They're too busy doing it themselves.
What a pair of corporate whores those 2 are.
Last edited October 6, 2012 3:10 pm