Disney+ Launches at $7/Mo: Our First Look

Taking the wraps off Disney+, Disney offers consumers a compelling, impressive lineup with popular favorites.

Image of Disney+ on tablet courtesy of Disney

Essentials about Disney+

• launches Nov 12

• $6.99/month

• includes franchises Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Disney classic films

• includes newer Disney films such as “Frozen”

• includes favorites from Fox such as The Simpsons

• includes National Geographic and Disney family-friendly TV programming

• 500 movies at launch, 7,500 episodes of television shows

• 25 original series

• free of advertising

On April 11th, Disney CEO Bob Iger shared specifics about the entertainment company’s new online video streaming service, first announced back in November of last year, during an investor call. At the end of its two-hour and forty-five minute investor call to share details about Disney+. Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+ is priced at $6.99/month, which is roughly half of what consumers pay today for Netflix’s standard streaming package and also $2 less than Amazon Prime Video. Disney+ will launch on Nov 12. During the investor call, Disney CEO Bob Iger also briefly discussed bundling Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN but did not offer more details about timing or pricing.

“This is our first serious foray in this space and we want to reach as many people as possible.”

— Bob Iger, CEO at Disney

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Disney+ Design and Features

Image via Disney

Launching November 12 of this year, Disney+ or Disney Plus will be viewable on web browsers, smartphones, smart TVs, set-top multimedia boxes and tablets. The service works in a similar fashion to Netflix or Hulu. Disney+ highlights new content and special releases at the top of the home screen. You can explore Disney’s quality lineup ranging from Marvel and Star Wars to Pixar, National Geographic, Disney classics and new Disney movies in the works. The app recommends titles similar to Netflix or Amazon based on personal taste and has parental control features. Disney Plus will stream both HDR and 4K video.

While the app’s appearance is consistent across devices, there are some minor differences depending upon the platform. For example, audiences watching on smart TVs also can view animations. Disney allows for offline viewing and downloading content on to mobile devices for Disney+ subscribers.

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Disney+ Content

Image via Disney

Disney expects to showcase 500 movies that include 100 newer releases and 400 library titles of its iconic movies as well as 7,500 television shows. Disney+ expects to grow to 50 original series, 10,000 past TV episodes and 120 recent films within the next five years. As expected, the full library of content on Disney+ will be less than 20 percent of the content currently available on Netflix, according to a study by research firm Ampere Analysis. While Disney+’s streaming library is significantly smaller than Netflix’s collection, Disney+ boasts well known consumer favorite franchises and quality content. Disney+ reaps the benefits of Disney’s acquisitions of Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and 21st Century Fox. Popular Disney classics such as “Snow White,” “101 Dalmatians” and “The Little Mermaid” as well as newer favorites such as “Captain Marvel,” “The Avengers: Endgame,” “Frozen 2”, “Toy Story 4” and “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker” will be exclusive to Disney+. “Captain Marvel” is the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will not be available on Netflix.

Disney CEO Bob Iger shared that almost every single movie in the Disney catalog will eventually be available on the service, pulled out from its vault. While Netflix will continue to show existing Disney movies on its platform till the launch of Disney+, the streaming giant did announce that it was canceling the Daredevil TV series.

Disney+ will host the complete 30 seasons of “The Simpsons,” including all 662 episodes, as well as numerous family-friendly Fox programs. Disney acquired Fox back in 2017. Additional 20th Century Fox titles that will be on Disney+ include “The Sound of Music” and “Malcolm in the Middle.” Less family-friendly content from Fox is expected to go to Hulu, a company in which Disney owns a 60 percent stake. Disney+ will contain the entire Star Wars franchise as well as 18 Pixar movies at launch and Pixar’s animated shorts. Disney is also developing new series such as Monsters Inc. with Pixar and Star Wars television shows.

While Disney did not announce new Star Wars or Marvel projects during its Disney+ investor presentation, the company shared a quick preview of John Favreau’s highly anticipated Star Wars TV series, “The Mandolarian.” Favreau’s take on the popular Star Wars franchise is set seven years after the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi. The story follows “a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.” Additional Star Wars spinoffs include a live-action series with Diego Luna as Cassian Andor and a seventh season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars series.

Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios also shared that Tom Hiddleston will reappear as Loki in the new “Loki” series. Feige confirmed that Disney+ will be integrated with future feature films at Marvel and will add documentaries behind the scenes such as “Marvel 616” and “Marvel Heroes Project” TV shows.

Disney+ is also developing two new shows “Magic of the Animal Kingdom” and “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” for National Geographic, in addition to over 250 hours of existing National Geographic content. Additional Disney channel programming such as live-action kid movies, “Hannah Montana,” and “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” will also be available on Disney+.

Additional series that are rumored to be in development for Disney+ include:

• an untitled Muppet series

• 3 Men and a Baby

• Don Quixote

• Father of the Bride

• Flora & Ulysses

• Lady and the Tramp

• Magic Camp

• Noelle

• The Paper Magician

• The Parent Trap

• The Sandlot

• Stargirl

• The Sword in the Stone

• Timmy Failure

• Togo

• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Ten Unscripted Series in the Works

In April, a report surfaced that Disney+ would also include ten unscripted series of the following projects listed below.

Marvel’s 616: a documentary about Marvel’s stories, characters and creators

Earthkeepers: a documentary about the people such as conservationists who are changing how we see animals.

Be Our Chef: a Disney-inspired cooking competition hosted by Angela Kinsey of The Office.

Cinema Relics: an anthology of film props, art and costumes.

Encore: a recreation of original performances from former members of a high school musical with The Good Place actress Kristen Bell as producer.

Marvel’s Hero Project: a documentary about inspiring kids who have demonstrated selfless acts of bravery and kindness.

(Re)Connect: a story about a family that breaks apart and the issues that drive families apart and how to resolve them.

Rogue Trip: a travelogue of places that most tourists would not dare to venture by Bob Woodruff and his 27-year old doppelgänger son, Mack.

Shop Class: a competitive series about inventive students tasked who design, build and test new contraptions.

Untitled Walt Disney Imagineering documentary series: a documentary about the people, craft and business behind Disney’s theme park magic.

Non-Disney content: content from National Geographic and 21st Century Fox’s magazine and affiliate TV businesses.

Audiences can also choose to fork out $69.99 for a full year subscription, saving $13.89. Whether consumers sign for the monthly or annual subscription, they can enjoy access to the full library that includes originals such as “Dumbo” and “Bambi” to Pixar’s “Finding Dory,” the full Star Wars collection and the 21 films currently on video from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel’s recent billion-dollar blockbuster, “Captain Marvel,” along with Marvel’s upcoming release “Avengers: Endgame” will stream exclusively on the new platform. “Frozen II,” the sequel to the 2013 musical fantasy that garnered $400.7 million nationwide, will launch in theaters November 22. After the movie completes its multiplex run, it will be available for streaming on Disney+ right after its theatrical window expires.

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Disney+ Devices

Image via Disney

Disney+ will be available on smart TVs, web browsers, smartphones, tablets, TV boxes and game consoles like the Nintendo Switch. The company is working on launching its app on the PlayStation 4 and on Roku devices to be easily accessible to consumers everywhere.

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Disney+ Availability

Image from Disney’s classic “Dumbo” (1941) via Disney

When Disney+ launches on November 12, 2019, the platform will be accessible throughout North America. Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific market will have access by Q2 of 2020 and Disney+ will roll out to all major markets within two years as Disney builds out deals with its partners around the world. Disney is also planning to create new content for the platform for $2.5 billion and to easily move over films after their theatrical releases direct to streaming. New TV series in the works include the live-action Star Wars series “The Mandalorian,” directed by Jon Favreau, known for directing the first Iron Man (2008) as well as the Marvel series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”

Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Favreau at Disney+ investor presentation. Image via Disney

“Since we’re starting with new characters in a new time period, it’s a great way to bring in new fans.”

— Jon Favreau, Executive Producer of "The Mandalorian"

Favreau shared clips from the new series at the investor presentation. “Mandalorian” will consist of eight episodes. He is also the director of Disney’s live-action “Lion King” reboot, arriving in theaters July 19.

Disney expects to have 60-90 million new subscribers via Disney+ by 2024 with 30 percent coming from domestic markets, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne in an April 8 note to investors. Disney+ is expected to have 5 million paying subscribers by the end of 2020. To build awareness about Disney+, Disney is launching a large marketing campaign across its properties such as Disney theme parks and important events such as Comic-Con. Through Disney’s TV networks (ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel and more) can connect to more than 100 million consumer households.

“[The company is set to unleash a] “synergy campaign of a magnitude that is unprecedented in the history of Disney.”

— Ricky Strauss, President of Content and Marketing for Disney+

During the investor call, Disney CEO Bob Iger, who is responsible for Disney’s largest acquisitions such as Pixar Animation, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd. and the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox since becoming CEO in 2005, said that he will be stepping down from his contract at the end of 2021. Disney is in the process of finding a suitable replacement. Iger’s remarkable success as CEO took the entertainment company (DIS) from $23 a share to $130 a share when Disney+ was announced.

Wall Street responded well to Iger’s presentation of Disney+, its new streaming-video service. Netflix (NFLX) shares fell almost five percent on Thursday.

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Amazon Shutting Down 87 Pop-Up Stores

Ending a five-year experiment, Amazon is shuttering its pop-up stores while bolstering other brick and mortar efforts.

Photo by Richard Levine, Zuma Press

Amazon is closing its 87 U.S. pop-up stores, according to the Wall Street Journal. The shops are located in places like malls and Whole Foods stores and will be closing by the end of April this year. Amazon  is terminating this five-year experiment, while expanding its brick and mortar efforts such as existing bookstores, cashier-less convenience stores nd 4-star stores, and launching its new line of grocery stores.

The pop-up stores currently take up a few hundred square feet of space. The stores showcase devices like voice-assistant speakers such as Alexa, tablets and Kindle e-readers. The staff are dressed casually in black Amazon T-shirts and encourage people walking by to sample the latest products.

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The Arrival of the Foldable Smartphone: Samsung Launches Galaxy Fold, While Apple Continues to Test

On February 20, Samsung unveiled its luxury foldable smartphone at its Unpacked Event in San Francisco, California.

Image via Samsung

Samsung’s new luxury smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, functions as both a smartphone with a 4.6 inch display and a tablet with a 7.3 inch display when it opens up. Priced at $1980, the device is intended for upscale customers who recognize the benefits of having one device as compared to carrying both a smartphone and tablet. The device works with a hidden hinge with gears under the display, creating a seamless look. The Galaxy Fold comes in four colors: black, silver, green, and blue.

Image via Samsung

Samsung has created apps that work with the new dual display fold via a feature called App Continuity to enable the apps to stay open even if the device is open or closed. Samsung worked closely with Google on this feature, testing out Google Maps features. This ostensibly is the best feature of this foldable smartphone model thus far.

Image via Samsung

The Galaxy Fold has a 7-nanometer processor, 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, along with a 4,380mAh battery, which consists of two batteries on either side of the hinge. The device has a total of six cameras - three on the back, two on the inside, and one on the front. These cameras enable the user to take photos regardless of how the device is folded. The Galaxy Fold comes in two versions, one with LTE and one for 5G. Samsung intends to ship the device with its own iteration on Apple’s popular AirPods, called the Galaxy Buds. The new device will be available for purchase April 26.

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Early Launch Not Yet Consumer Ready

Samsung’s launch demonstrates technical savviness, but also a lack of consumer awareness. Priced at a starting price of $1,980 and going up from there, the new Galaxy Fold is beyond the reach of the average consumer. It becomes more of a luxury item for early adopters. While there is a lot of consumer interest in foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Fold price point is not yet affordable for a majority of consumers. In addition, the device is not fully tested either. In some respects, you are spending a lot to gain access to a beta version of the product. Some concerns noted by tech journalists who attended the event, include:

• the inner display of the device never seems to fold out to be perfectly flat
• issues with folding completely and laying flat entirely
• small size of the smartphone screen at 4.6 inches
• poor user interface with 3-app multitasking

The small size of the smartphone screen at 4.6 inches seems to indicate that the device is intended primarily for tablet use where the user could receive notifications and do basic searches using the smartphone screen, but then would open up to the table for any serious computing efforts.

Image via Samsung

The Galaxy Fold enables the user to use three apps simultaneously. However, the user interface needs significant improvement and the apps are not appropriately scaled for optimal viewing. It’s clear that the device needs fine tuning and refinement in all these areas. For less than the cost of a new Galaxy Fold, consumers can buy a high quality iPhone and iPad that work perfectly or a Google Pixel and Samsung tablet. While it is marketed to consumers, the Galaxy Fold fails to meet expectations because the product is not ready for the mass market, from usability and design to customer experience and pricing. Perhaps Samsung needed to demonstrate its technical capabilities via the new device, but marketing to consumers so early on without sufficient refinement, creates unrealistic expectations and disappointment as the product is just not yet ready.

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Hot on the Heels of Samsung’s Announcement, Huawei Shares Its Own Foldable Smartphone

Image via Huawei

Not to be outdone, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei launched its own foldable smartphone, the Huawei Mate X, four days later on February 24th at the Mobile World Congress. The Mate X uses Huawei’s "Falcon Wing" design with a stretchable hinge that allows the smartphone to open out from a 6.6-inch OLED smartphone to an 8-inch OLED tablet. The new foldable smartphone is thus larger than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.

Image via Huawei

Image via Huawei

Huawei’s Mate X folds in the opposite direction of Samsung's Galaxy Fold. The "Falcon wing" at the side houses the camera and also enables the Mate X display to be notch free. The Mate X uses a Leica camera system with four cameras that include a 40-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 16-megapixel ultra wide angle lens, an 8 megapixel telephoto lens and a fourth camera yet to be activated. The Mate X also focuses on multitasking, is equipped with a 5G modem and has a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power switch for biometric authentication. Huawei has announced that the new foldable smartphone also has a 55W SuperCharge feature to charge the included 4,500mAh battery up to 85 percent in just 30 minutes. 

While Samsung shocked the market with its model starting at $1,980, Huawei’s Mate X costs even more, coming in at $2,600. Huawei’s foldable smartphone is expected to hit the market in the summer by June or July. Huawei’s new foldable smartphone however may not be available in the United States given the company’s existing conflicts with the U.S. government. Huawei has been suspected of supporting surveillance efforts and espionage by the Chinese government. Its CFO Meng Wanzhou is being extradited to the United States from Canada. Other countries have followed suit, including Japan and England, with discussions in Germany and other parts of Europe whether to allow the Chinese tech giant to gain access to telecommunication networks or not.

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A Brief History of Foldable Smartphones

Foldable smartphones have piqued interest for a considerable time now, with hype increasing in the past few years as images and concept ideas have surfaced on the Internet. Manufacturers have poured millions of dollars into research and development with patented hinges such as Chinese tech company TCL’s “Dragon Hinge” that took many years to develop.

Dragon Hinge design by TCL

The DragonHinge is the name of the hinge that helps bridge the two screens together to create a foldable phone. It is paired with flexible AMOLED displays created by CSOT, a sister company of TCL. TCL notably has not yet launched its smartphone for consumers, citing the need to make the device accessible to consumers at an affordable price range.

Samsung has been working on foldable smartphones since 2011. Numerous other companies have also been working on their own prototypes and launch-ready models including Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo and more. Likely candidates include Acer, Asus and LG. One of the earliest models to be released was the Royole Flexpai in January of this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which received lukewarm support due to product errors but did enjoy the recognition of being the world’s “first foldable smartphone.”

Given the popularity of the foldable smartphone at the Mobile World Congress and the hype surrounding the launch of Samsung’s new product, it is clear that foldable have gained popular appeal. It will be interesting to see what new versions come to market and how well the software integrates with these new designs. Few products have garnered as much attention as the foldable smartphone has in recent months.

As always, Apple is not in a rush to launch a foldable smartphone product. The company is known for creating some of the world’s best products over time and careful testing, emphasizing quality over speed. Apple has filed patents previously for foldable smartphones. This does not confirm however that the company is building foldable smartphones in the near future.

Are foldable smartphones here to stay? It is not yet clear whether the foldable smartphone will gain mass market appeal and thus define the smartphone and tablet industry in the years to come or if it is just a short-term fad that will fade away. We will have to wait and see!

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