Apple says its App Store has resulted in a half-million new jobs in Europe alone

Posted:
in General Discussion edited August 2014
Apple on Wednesday began touting its success in Europe, claiming that it has created or supported 629,000 new jobs in the continent, with nearly 500,000 of those from the so-called "app economy."




The stats were revealed on a new section of the company's site entitled "Apple's Job Creation in Europe." The iPhone maker states that its App Store has enabled European developers to earn $6.5 billion from App Store sales, from a total of $20 billion in sales worldwide.

"This job growth for coders, developers, entrepreneurs, and others would not have existed without Apple's innovation and technology," the company said. "We also provide app developers with the tools and distribution they need to bring their best ideas to hundreds of millions of iOS customers worldwide through the incredible App Store."

Of the 629,000 new jobs Apple takes responsibility for, it says 497,000 of those are directly attributable to the App Store. Another 132,000 are jobs directly or indirectly supported by Apple, while 116,000 positions in Europe are said to have been created as a result of Apple's growth.

Finally, Apple itself employs 16,000 people directly in Europe, bringing the total sum to 629,000.

Looking forward, Apple projects that the overall "app economy" will deliver $16.5 billion in revenues to the European Union gross domestic product in 2014. This sum is reportedly growing at 12 percent per year.

Breaking down members of its paid developer program by country, Apple says it has created 61,100 positions in the U.K., 52,200 jobs in Germany, 30,000 jobs in France, 20,900 positions in Italy, and 18,300 new jobs in the Netherlands.




As for Apple's own employees, most --?5,000 -- of them are located in the U.K. Another 4,000 are found in Ireland, where the company has its international headquarters in Cork.

Apple share similar U.S.-specific statistics last year, at the time claiming that 80,000 new American jobs were created by the iOS "app economy" in the year 2012. The amount Apple pays to its developers has been steadily growing, and the company revealed on Tuesday that the month of July was the best ever for the App Store, both in terms of revenue and number of customers.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    aderutteraderutter Posts: 604member
    This should be full page in everyday newspapers imho.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    A little bit overly self-congratulatory for my tastes, given that these developers have in turn added an enormous amount of value to Apple's own products, which is given no mention.  But still, impressive numbers.

     

    I saw an article earlier today (forgive me, I've completely forgotten where) that claimed that 50% of developers in the app economy are employed on iOS development, which is very impressive too.

  • Reply 3 of 18
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    How many jobs did they take away by killing the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Symbian? ;)

  • Reply 4 of 18
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    richl wrote: »
    How many jobs did they take away by killing the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Symbian? ;)

    Not sure that's the correct characterization. Apple simply did its own thing. It was customer preference for Apple products and a failure to innovate on the part of those companies that caused their downfall.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    inklinginkling Posts: 768member
    A half-million new jobs? What ad agency did Apple hire to come up with that claim--or perhaps it came from one of their lawyers. Both groups play fast and loose with the truth.

    A job is full-time, providing enough income to support one's self and a family. It also often comes with benefits attached. What Apple is talking about is "work," or more accurately occasional work. Selling apps is for most developers like a teenager who picks up a little money in the summer mowing neighbor's yards. The added income may be helpful, but it's not enough to live on.

    Note that the article mentions that last year Apple claimed that its app store created 80,000 U.S. jobs. That's certainly a believable figure. But the very fact that it's believable makes that 500,000 jobs claim for Europe ridiculous. To believe that, we'd have to assume that Europeans are over six times as capable of developing apps as Americans.

    I want to be fair though. I don't develop apps, but I do write and publish books through the iBookstore. For ebooks, Apple pays the best royalties among all the major retailers. In fact, outside the narrow $2.99 to $9.99 price range, it pays twice per sale what Amazon pays. That is good.

    With apps like Book Proofer and iBooks Author, Apple also offers for more support for ebook development than Amazon. Apple worked with Adobe to make sure that the latest update to InDesign does marvelous reflowable and fixed format epub export. When I create a print version of a book in InDesign, both versions of epub can be exported in just minutes. That is marvelous.

    In contrast, Amazon--I have from insiders--has refused to offer any support to Adobe in creating Kindle Mobi/KF8 export from ID. In fact I recently queried Kindle support, asking if Amazon could convert fixed format epub to fixed format KF8. (I do textbooks, so fixed format is important.) Amazon's answer was mean-spirited. It said in essence: if you want that, pay some third party firm thousands of dollars to hand code it. We're not going to help you by updating and improving our now obsolete ID plug-in.

    Apple deserves to be commended for the support it offers both app developer and authors. It treats them well and pays them well. It doesn't need to cook the books, making ridiculous claims about jobs created. What it does is already impressive, however many full-time jobs it creates. For that, Apple deserves more credit than it is getting.

    --Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books, Auburn, AL
  • Reply 6 of 18
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RadarTheKat View Post





    Not sure that's the correct characterization. Apple simply did its own thing. It was customer preference for Apple products and a failure to innovate on the part of those companies that caused their downfall.

     

    Sure, but without Apple this probably wouldn't have happened. The point I'm (half-jokingly) trying to make is: how many of these jobs are new and not just recycled?

  • Reply 7 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Inkling View Post



    A half-million new jobs? What ad agency did Apple hire to come up with that claim--or perhaps it came from one of their lawyers. Both groups play fast and loose with the truth.



    A job is full-time, providing enough income to support one's self and a family. It also often comes with benefits attached. What Apple is talking about is "work," or more accurately occasional work. Selling apps is for most developers like a teenager who picks up a little money in the summer mowing neighbor's yards. The added income may be helpful, but it's not enough to live on.



    Note that the article mentions that last year Apple claimed that its app store created 80,000 U.S. jobs. That's certainly a believable figure. But the very fact that it's believable makes that 500,000 jobs claim for Europe ridiculous. To believe that, we'd have to assume that Europeans are over six times as capable of developing apps as Americans.



    I want to be fair though. I don't develop apps, but I do write and publish books through the iBookstore. For ebooks, Apple pays the best royalties among all the major retailers. In fact, outside the narrow $2.99 to $9.99 price range, it pays twice per sale what Amazon pays. That is good.



    With apps like Book Proofer and iBooks Author, Apple also offers for more support for ebook development than Amazon. Apple worked with Adobe to make sure that the latest update to InDesign does marvelous reflowable and fixed format epub export. When I create a print version of a book in InDesign, both versions of epub can be exported in just minutes. That is marvelous.



    In contrast, Amazon--I have from insiders--has refused to offer any support to Adobe in creating Kindle Mobi/KF8 export from ID. In fact I recently queried Kindle support, asking if Amazon could convert fixed format epub to fixed format KF8. (I do textbooks, so fixed format is important.) Amazon's answer was mean-spirited. It said in essence: if you want that, pay some third party firm thousands of dollars to hand code it. We're not going to help you by updating and improving our now obsolete ID plug-in.



    Apple deserves to be commended for the support it offers both app developer and authors. It treats them well and pays them well. It doesn't need to cook the books, making ridiculous claims about jobs created. What it does is already impressive, however many full-time jobs it creates. For that, Apple deserves more credit than it is getting.



    --Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books, Auburn, AL

     

    Michael,

     

    As an iOS developer and coder myself, the money is not trying to sell your app in the App Store for a buck or two. Unless your app is in the top 200 or so, you're unlikely to make a living as you stated. The bread and butter is consulting. Senior mobile engineers (iOS or Android) are guaranteed six figure jobs with full benefits in any major city. Or they can do independent contracting and get short term gigs paying >$100/hour. Look at all the VC money going into startups to develop new apps (i.e. Uber, AirBnB, etc.). Each of them are raising millions of investment dollars. Those investment dollars are going to developers, designers, coders, etc. to build these apps. If you're just looking at the money in the App Store, you're missing the bigger picture. That's not where most of the money or jobs are.

     

    Leon

  • Reply 8 of 18
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    richl wrote: »
    Sure, but without Apple this probably wouldn't have happened. The point I'm (half-jokingly) trying to make is: how many of these jobs are new and not just recycled?
    Interesting question. Apple's wording says "jobs that previously did not exist". I wonder how they're able to determine that?
  • Reply 9 of 18
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    In my opinion, Apple does not need to trumpet these numbers. They are a consumer products and software company, not a "job factory". Keep the focus on their area of expertise. Messages about creating jobs is all about appeasing politicians, which never has the intended effect. Politicians are colostomy bags.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    In my opinion, Apple does not need to trumpet these numbers. They are a consumer products and software company, not a "job factory". Keep the focus on their area of expertise. Messages about creating jobs is all about appeasing politicians, which never has the intended effect. Politicians are colostomy bags.
    Agreed. Also why I don't like it when Apple goes before congress to defend its tax policy (which is 100% legal and plenty of other companies are doing the same thing) or signs their name to an initiative they're already doing (like supplier pay). Apple has nothing to justify or apologize for.

    What would be cool is for Apple highlight specific developers and/or suppliers that they work with. They did it a little bit here but it would be great if they created a section on their website devoted to that. I thought it was interesting to hear about this company Metal Impact from Illinois that Apple uses in the manufacture of the Mac Pro's cylinder enclosure. More stuff like that (without giving away any secrets) would be nice.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    sflagelsflagel Posts: 803member
    Every company creates jobs. And every company should pay taxes. It doesn't matter whether the jobs are created by many small companies, or one large company. Why should the large company ay fear taxes than the aggregate of the many small companies? One can argue against corporate taxes until the cows come home, but right now, paying taxes is the right thing to do.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    leon fu wrote: »
    inkling wrote: »
    A half-million new jobs? What ad agency did Apple hire to come up with that claim--or perhaps it came from one of their lawyers. Both groups play fast and loose with the truth.


    A job is full-time, providing enough income to support one's self and a family. It also often comes with benefits attached. What Apple is talking about is "work," or more accurately occasional work. Selling apps is for most developers like a teenager who picks up a little money in the summer mowing neighbor's yards. The added income may be helpful, but it's not enough to live on.


    Note that the article mentions that last year Apple claimed that its app store created 80,000 U.S. jobs. That's certainly a believable figure. But the very fact that it's believable makes that 500,000 jobs claim for Europe ridiculous. To believe that, we'd have to assume that Europeans are over six times as capable of developing apps as Americans.

    Michael,

    As an iOS developer and coder myself, the money is not trying to sell your app in the App Store for a buck or two. Unless your app is in the top 200 or so, you're unlikely to make a living as you stated. The bread and butter is consulting. Senior mobile engineers (iOS or Android) are guaranteed six figure jobs with full benefits in any major city. Or they can do independent contracting and get short term gigs paying >$100/hour. Look at all the VC money going into startups to develop new apps (i.e. Uber, AirBnB, etc.). Each of them are raising millions of investment dollars. Those investment dollars are going to developers, designers, coders, etc. to build these apps. If you're just looking at the money in the App Store, you're missing the bigger picture. That's not where most of the money or jobs are.

    Leon

    That's right, a significant part of the money comes from full-time work on other people's apps not direct sales on the app store. The following PDF has some figures on money from employment:

    http://eurapp.eu/sites/default/files/Sizing the EU App Economy.pdf

    "EU developers took in $23.7 billion (€17.5 billion) in revenue in 2013, and we forecast that figure will increase to $85.3 billion (€63 billion) in five years. But you might be surprised where a lot of that revenue comes from. In addition to $8.1 billion (€6.0 billion) in app sales, in-app spending for virtual goods, and advertising, EU developers recognized $15.6 billion (€11.5 billion) in 2013 from contract labor."

    It's clear the app store alone can't sustain that many full-time jobs. Apple reports $6.5b was made to EU developers total over multiple years. It's a portion of that in a given year. Say that 2013-2014 was $3b and the top 25 developers take 50%. To distribute $1.5b between 500,000 (minus 25) people would mean each would get a yearly pay of ~$3,000. 25% of apps apparently don't make any money.

    It's still valid to count a lot of them as a job even if it's more like a part-time job that you use to boost your income. A genuine figure of jobs created should really be how many people made more than minimum wage for a minimum working time. If they said minimum 15 hours per week at minimum wage, the number of jobs created should be how many earned more than that. There's a graph here showing EU minimum wages:

    http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=ml9s8a132hlg_&met_y=minimum_wage&idim=country:fr:nl:es&fdim_y=currency:eur&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=minimum_wage&fdim_y=currency:eur&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:uk:be:bg:hr:cz:ee:mk:fr:el:hu:ie:lv:lt:lu:mt:nl:pl:pt:ro:sk:si:tr:es&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false

    Bulgaria's not doing so well. There are quite a few EU countries missing there but anyway, it should be more like the upper ones around 1300 euros per month for full-time. Say part-time is 1/3. This would mean the least amount to qualify as a job would be someone making over 5000 euros per year. That would likely reduce the number a bit but I still expect the number of jobs to be created to be significant considering it's just a single company driving this.

    Nokia and the like employed a lot of people but it wasn't development jobs, it was low-level monkey work in retail outlets selling garbage products by lying to customers. Development skills can translate into highly paid work later on and become life-long careers.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Inkling View Post



    A job is full-time, providing enough income to support one's self and a family. It also often comes with benefits attached. What Apple is talking about is "work," or more accurately occasional work. Selling apps is for most developers like a teenager who picks up a little money in the summer mowing neighbor's yards. The added income may be helpful, but it's not enough to live on.

     

     

    Here in the United Kingdom there is a vast shortage of iOS developers. Jobs for iOS developers can go unfilled for months on end.

     

    If a developer here can make iOS Objective-C apps then they can easily get a great job on a great salary. Junior developers with very little experience can command a salary equivalent to the national average salary. Experienced middle-weight developers can command salaries twice the national average and contractors can expect renumeration double that. 

     

    I suppose there must be some developers that make iOS apps part-time and have a different day-time job, but they're probably foolish given the current jobs market-place.

     

    Many of the jobs counted in the article numbers are not developers, they might be receptionists working in companies that only develop iOS apps for example. Or people working in businesses that create Apple accessories. Maybe there is a lot more entrepreneurship outside of USA?

     

    Btw, you do know that the population of Europe is twice that of USA, right?

  • Reply 14 of 18
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    sflagel wrote: »
    Every company creates jobs. And every company should pay taxes. It doesn't matter whether the jobs are created by many small companies, or one large company. Why should the large company ay fear taxes than the aggregate of the many small companies? One can argue against corporate taxes until the cows come home, but right now, paying taxes is the right thing to do.
    That's your opinion, not fact. Taxes companies pay just get passed on to consumers anyway.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    sflagelsflagel Posts: 803member
    As I
    rogifan wrote: »
    That's your opinion, not fact. Taxes companies pay just get passed on to consumers anyway.
    As I wrote, whether corp taxes are good or bad is not the point. The point was that there should be no differences between small companies and large ones.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member

    Apple reminds the world capitalism creates real jobs. 

  • Reply 17 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    tzeshan wrote: »
    Apple reminds the world capitalism creates real jobs.

    Lower paid and less secure ones though (the private sector average includes millionaire/billionaire CEOs):

    http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2013/07/29/total-compensation-us-government-employees-vs-the-private-sector-n1651097/page/full

    It should be the other way round.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member

    Apple reminds the worl

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post





    Lower paid and less secure ones though (the private sector average includes millionaire/billionaire CEOs):



    http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2013/07/29/total-compensation-us-government-employees-vs-the-private-sector-n1651097/page/full



    It should be the other way round.

    Part of the reason is either Congress or Americans do not want to shut down the federal government.  The result is the federal jobs are not competitive to the private sector.  In other words, we have a bunch of fat bureaucrats.  The airport security personnel used to be run by private companies and thus very competitive.  As a result of 911, we now have a boat load of well paid federal workers.  Their only functionality is to catch terrorists.  How many of terrorists they catch in a year?  

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