The methodology used in the article doesn't just look at direct employment, but also assumes an "employment spillover" factor of 1.5 (which seems pretty high to me, but I'm not an economist).
Their overall methodology was:
1. They found 44,400 non-duplicate help-wanted ads for "app economy" technical jobs (i.e. computer and math)
2. They Multiplied this by 3.5, assuming for every want ad there are actually 3.5 jobs
3. They assumed that for each tech job there is also one non-technical job (sales, marketing, HR, etc...)
4. They assumed a multiplier of 1.5 for spillover
5. 44.4K*3.5*2*1.5 = 466K
They also mention an estimate of $20 Billion for the App market.
In other words, complete bullshit.
It's not a job if it doesn't pay your bills. Some hobbyist programmer making $500 doesn't mean a job has been created. This estimate is wrong by at least a factor of 10.
Whether the numbers are accurate or not I think Apple really made keen business moves in the last decade and they revived the tech industry with some fresh twists to old things. Focusing on apps and making a wall gardened approach, as much as apple haters like to criticize it, really makes a difference in your experience using a device. Such an environment also not surprisingly attracts a lot of developers.
Comments
The methodology used in the article doesn't just look at direct employment, but also assumes an "employment spillover" factor of 1.5 (which seems pretty high to me, but I'm not an economist).
Their overall methodology was:
1. They found 44,400 non-duplicate help-wanted ads for "app economy" technical jobs (i.e. computer and math)
2. They Multiplied this by 3.5, assuming for every want ad there are actually 3.5 jobs
3. They assumed that for each tech job there is also one non-technical job (sales, marketing, HR, etc...)
4. They assumed a multiplier of 1.5 for spillover
5. 44.4K*3.5*2*1.5 = 466K
They also mention an estimate of $20 Billion for the App market.
In other words, complete bullshit.
It's not a job if it doesn't pay your bills. Some hobbyist programmer making $500 doesn't mean a job has been created. This estimate is wrong by at least a factor of 10.