Apple COO says App Store stimulates economy with $120B and tech jobs
When the App Store was launched on July 10, 2008, Apple probably had no idea their digital marketplace that held a little over 500 native applications would grow beyond 2.2 million in its 11 years of existence.
According to Fortune, developers earned a whopping $34 billion from the App Store in 2018, which was 28 percent higher than the earnings Apple shared with developers the year prior. As to be expected with such a massive revenue stream going into the pockets of app creators, there’s a positive effect on the economy.
Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams exclusively shared with Fox's Brett Larson the positive impacts he has seen the App Store make on its participating developers.
“What's really neat is it's created a whole economy of jobs that didn't exist before,” Williams said regarding the increase in programming jobs the world has seen after the App Store’s launch.
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“In the U.S. alone, we have over 1.9 million people creating apps for the App Store. We've paid out over 120 billion dollars since the App Store started,” he revealed. “And it's wonderful because a single individual can use their creativity and create something, and then they have a way to distribute it and reach the world, which wouldn't have been possible before.”
"Hong Kong, China - November 11, 2011: iPhone 4s screen closeup with iTunes and App Store. iPhone 4s is the fifth generation of Apple smartphone." (iStock)
Williams elaborated that prior to 2008, programmers that wanted to release an app to the public would have to jump through hoops or be armed with resources and capital.
“I mean previously you would have had to have a sales team and you would've had to have a way to reach customers,” he explained.
However, that was no longer with the streamlined App Store—which ultimately democratized the market and encouraged a boom in software development that’s resulted in over 1.3 million jobs in 2018 alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Williams went on to add that the App Store provides a simplified process for developers.
“They can just put it on the App Store and we have people making a living doing this and it's fantastic,” he said.
Apple set the stage for the entire app market.
The App Store’s main competitor, Google Play, launched three months later on Oct. 22, 2008. According to the industry news and resource website Business of Apps, the Google Play store has over 3.3 million apps available.
A separate report from Business of Apps revealed most apps are used for social reasons. At the time of this article, the top 10 free apps in the App Store are TikTok, Gmail, Google Maps, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Messenger, Facebook, Google Docs and WhatsApp.
According to the mobile market data and analytics platform App Annie, global consumer spending in the app arena is expected to surpass $120 billion in 2019.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted the job outlook for software developers will increase by 21 percent from 2018 to 2028, which is much higher than the average 5 percent growth rate it predicted for all other occupations. Within that same timeframe, the bureau has projected that 26 percent of those workers will be in the app creation field.