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Businesses United Kingdom Apple

App Store Supports Over 830,000 Jobs in UK, Germany and France, Says Apple (macrumors.com) 30

Apple says its App Store now supports more than 330,000 jobs in the U.K., a 10% increase over the past year, despite the pressures of the global health crisis on the nation's economy. From a report: According to Apple, 2020 was a "breakthrough year" for the iOS app economy, with developers in the U.K. generating more than $5 billion in total earnings, which represents 22% in growth compared to the previous year. The company says a similar trend was reflected in Europe, where the iOS app economy has grown to support 1.7 million jobs -- a 7% percent increase since 2019. Apple published similar press releases in Germany and France, claiming that the App Store supports over a quarter of a million jobs in each of those two countries.
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App Store Supports Over 830,000 Jobs in UK, Germany and France, Says Apple

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  • A Job is work what you do to make money.
    A Career is what you do for your life's work.

    I am sick of the number of Jobs argument. As how many of these Jobs are just sole sucking work that there is no passion for and just bring in enough money to survive and is blocking you from an actual career in something where you feel that you are contributing and are excited about doing?

    Sure in a Career you get jobs that suck, but overall you feel good at the end of the day on what you have done.

    How many Careers where yo

    • As how many of these Jobs are just sole sucking work that there is no passion for

      The vast majority of jobs in the world are not "fun". That's why you get paid to do them.

      Writing apps is more fun and fulfilling than 99% of jobs. If it's not for you, then don't do it. It is not Apple's responsibility to help you find your purpose in life.

      • It isn't about if the Job is fun or not. But to the point on how you feel after doing such job, or after you have done all your jobs.
        But many of American Puritanical beliefs that are stuck in our culture make us feel that We need to suffer for our work. But it is more of an issue of is the best person doing the right job?

        We often have a lot of talented smart people working a high labor type of job. They don't get promoted, because such a job is so dull to them because they are much more suited for plannin

        • But to the point on how you feel after doing such job

          My spouse has an app business. I help her for about 10-20 hours a week during the evenings and weekends. It is enjoyable, and I feel good when we finish and release a new app.

          This had happened to my father, He has an 8th grade education ...

          What in the world are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with the App Store?

        • The easiest way to mow the lawn was in circles.
          However, that is not the most aesthetically pleasing. For that, I was made to mow it in 45 degree angle rows.

  • Article and link say 330,000, headlines says 830,000. I sense an Apple PR bot modifying headlines.
    • The real article is a click through the macrumers article onto apple.com that mentions 330,000 UK, and 250,000 each for Germany and France. So the math adds up.

      What does not add up is the 5,000,000,000 income divided by 330,000 UK 'jobs', that's an average income of 15,000 - there should be a law that all those 'jobs' that do not make minimum wage to support an acceptable living wage should not be allowed to be counted as 'jobs'.
    • by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      The headline says 830,000 in UK, Germany, and France. The 330,000 is UK only, with, according to TFA, another quarter million each in France and Germany.

    • I still smell a ridiculous number in 330,000 "jobs" supported by the App Store. It has to be for extremely small values of support. If you got a nickel from the app, then it "helped" support you?

      Over the years I've actually exchanged email with a number of app developers. I can't recall any of them claiming they were "supported" in the sense of making a living from their apps. (Which (by the way) no doubt explains why so many apps are orphaned or dead.)

      Nice guys and I applaud them for wanting to help people

  • How do they even measure these numbers?

    Independent developer who publishes an app that 10 people ever have downloaded? That's still "SUPPORT!"

    Work at a top-10 tech company, but not even remotely touching mobile apps? That's still "SUPPORT" since those companies still make $$$ from the app store!

    Its all about wordsmithing.

    • They put out a tender for a research company. The criteria for which research company gets the bucket of Apple cash is...

      > Who can come up with the biggest number and still (kinda) maintain a straight face

  • It's not as if the dead of Apple's app store would kill these 830,000 jobs. If the Apple App Store didn't exist, these people would be writing software published elsewhere.

  • ... this is just another corporate lie. The sheer number is such that it must come under immediate scrutiny.
  • "Supporting"? (Score:5, Informative)

    by xgerrit ( 2879313 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @02:31PM (#61161522)

    Apple had over 20 million registered developers as of 2018 [techcrunch.com] and almost certainly has more as of now.

    So Apple's really saying only 4% of Apple Developers are making any money.

    Apple paid developers $35 billion in 2019 [cnbc.com], so thatâ(TM)s about $42k paid per developer. But most of that revenue goes to things like Spotify and Netflix subscriptions, and business costs eat up much of what companies get from Apple, which means the average Apple developer is below the poverty line. If you're in the lucky 4%.

    Of course all of this is moot because Apple isn't "supporting" developers, as much as it's requiring them to fork over 30% of their cash and never directly compete with Apple. Prior to Apple the average cost for selling through a vendor online was closer to 8%. So Apple's basically taking ~$20 billion that used to go to developers.

    • Of course all of this is moot because Apple isn't "supporting" developers, as much as it's requiring them to fork over 30% of their cash and never directly compete with Apple.

      And they're providing the store, the platform, and the customers to come by and browse but yeah other than all that Apple's just sitting there twiddling its thumbs while devs come in and pay them.

      • Not sure what was the point of your comment, but indeed 30% is a lot for just the platform. The users? Well, they buy an iPhone because apps are available on iPhone as well. It's not like Apple is doing anything to "sell" apps (or that would be another extra fee I guess). Maybe at the very beginning 30% was okay because the notion of appstore was new and it was still costing Apple a lot, but nowadays, it's a joke.

        If most apps were only available on Android, then I think Apple would have a big problem.

        • Not sure what was the point of your comment,

          You're underrating Apple's involvement in the store. App developers make more money on the Apple side than the Android side. Maybe that's because Apple trains their customers to spend money, maybe it's because the App Store's recommendations work, maybe it's because of their advertising program. Whatever the reason, it's a willful choice by the developers.

  • by ytene ( 4376651 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @02:50PM (#61161588)
    According to Statista [statista.com], by 2019 there were 386,900 people employed as developers in the entire UK business sector.

    So for Apple to claim that, somehow, the App Store supports in excess of 330,000 people... just seems a bit much.

    There are zero citations and zero evidence provided with Apple's claims, which make them rather difficult to debunk beyond an obligatory "Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire!" (which, if we're honest, is about what this claim deserves).

    Not only does Apple not get specific, it's facts seem quite wrong. One of the claims it makes is for London-based language learning company, Busuu. Apple's gushing praise includes the following statement:-

    "Busuu, the world’s largest online language learning community, has seen incredible growth in the last year with 70 new hires, doubling the size of the company. This year, it plans to expand the team by more than 50 percent."

    Yet if you go to LinkedIn [linkedin.com] you will see, just under the logo at the top of the page, a link which reads, "View all 185 employees". So let's just get that right... In the last year, the company made "70 new hires, doubling the size of the company". But that would make the company 140 employees total. Except Linked in show it already has more than 185 employees.

    Don't misunderstand me - a growth of, say, 115 to 185 is still very impressive - if all of that growth is being generated by App Store revenue. It is all being generated by App Store revenue, right?

    Well, also on the LinkedIn page, you will find a link to CrunchBase [crunchbase.com], which reports a total of 7 rounds of funding for the company... from a total of 7 investment firms. In total, the company has received 14 Million Euros in funding across the 10 years they have been active. But the most recent cash injection - in May 2020 - does not include an amount (and the other injections of cash account for the 14 million total). In other words, it's entirely possible that the headcount increase last year was as much driven by cash from another funding round as it was from iOS store sales.

    What are Apple worried about? Complaints of anti-competitive behavior in the UK and Europe? EU investigation into the 30% "App Store Tax"? Something else?

    Whatever it is, the claims appear to be partly a case of "deliberate distortion", more a case of "wishful thinking" and nothing whatsoever a case of "actually based on cited facts".

    Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.
    • LinkedIn only shows employees who have an account which is publicly viewable. Could be more, could be less. Your math is therefore invalid.

      • by ytene ( 4376651 )
        But if that’s the case and the company has even more employees than LinkedIn are reporting, it shows that Apple’s narrative is in less accurate, because a hire of 70 individuals - which is a pretty unambiguous number, I hope you’ll agree - becomes even smaller relative to the total head count.

        I think your correction is entirely valid, but Apple are still telling outrageous Porky-Pies this time...
  • Try to reclassify the people with these "jobs" as employees of Apple, and see how fast the number plummets.
    • Yeah, claimning to "support jobs" is the classic lobbying technique employed by companies to justify the outrageous conditions in which they "support" those jobs. It's also the lamest technique and an easy one to debunk.
  • ..it's all typical Cook marketing B.S.

    with developers in the U.K. generating more than $5 billion in total earnings

    For all we know, just a single developer (like, the size of EA or something like that) could account for $4.98B of that, which makes all their numbers meaningless.

  • Would love to see the Gini coefficient on that number of devs to see just how widely the fruits are spread. My cynical guess is not far.

  • If there were no app store, and anyone could install anything, there would be even more jobs.

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