Apple released figures yesterday touting its impact on the job market. Its study revealed that the tech giant has created 514,000 jobs, over 210,000 of those related directly to Apple’s mobile products. Curiously, Apple chose a late Friday for this release – a time less likely to receive attention outside of trade press since most reporters had already filed their stories for the weekend editions.
Despite Apple’s low-key announcement of this news, it is a very big deal for developers. The growth of the app industry has touched every area of society. Think of any hobby, task, or area of interest. Yes, there is an app for that. Along with it, there’s an app developer who built that app. With passion, some expertise, or an existing business, you can build an app to share your knowledge and experience with thousands of people.
Apple jumpstarted job creation among software developers by creating the mobile app economy. None of this existed four years ago until Apple opened iOS up to developers and created the App Store. More than 600,000 jobs have been created or supplemented by the app marketplace. Today, more than 200,000 people are working to build apps on iOS and many thousands of small business are reaching new customers through innovative apps. The app economy exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit at its finest.
Here at ACT, as the app developers trade association, we are very proud of the success of our members. We also realize the responsibility we collectively have to be good corporate citizens. We will continue to be a resource for our members to implement best practices in privacy, security, and ethics. We strongly believe that helping app developers do what’s right for their customers is the best way to keep up the enormous momentum of the app economy.