Michael Harper for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online
Apple´s iPhone has been credited with beginning what many now call the “App Economy.” There were apps for Windows Mobile and Palm phones before 2008 when the App Store first debuted, of course. Borrowing a few lessons from their iTunes store which made buying individual songs online as easy as entering a password, Apple´s App Store become a more or less instant hit. Some of the App Store´s most popular developers are making a significant amount of money by selling millions of copies of apps that typically cost between $.99 and $2.99.
As a part of what appears to be a shift in Apple´s marketing strategy, the iPhone maker is now claiming they are responsible for creating more than 291,000 jobs in the App Economy. The company also says that they´ve grown to more than 800,000 employees around the world.
This newly updated page on Apple.com is focused on two things: innovation and job creation. According to Apple, it´s their innovation which is responsible for creating so many jobs.
“Throughout our history, Apple has created entirely new products — and entirely new industries — by focusing on innovation,” reads the opening statement to this new page.
“As a result, we´ve created or supported nearly 600,000 jobs for U.S. workers: from the engineer who helped invent the iPad to the delivery person who brings it to your door.”
The actual number of jobs created by Apple comes in at 598,500, with full time employees in all 50 states. And according to their stats, their iOS App Economy is responsible for 291,250 of these jobs.
There are now more than 800,000 apps in the App Store, resulting in 40 billion downloads since 2008, according to an Apple spokesperson in an email to redOrbit.
This 40-billion number is a figure that Apple bragged about back in January in a separate press release.
Apple also claims they´ve paid more than $8 billion in royalties to iOS developers. According to Apple, this is a thriving community, with more than 275,000 of these developers living in the US and over 6,000 available jobs currently listed on Indeed.com.
Though these developers depend on Apple, they aren´t directly employed by the Cupertino company. The number of those who are, however, has “more than quadrupled over the past decade,” claims Apple. In the early days of the iPod and five years before the iPhone, Apple employed only 10,000 people in the US. Since that time, this number has grown to 50,250. And the number gets even larger when one accounts for the 50,000 or so employees of vendors who directly report to Apple. These jobs include component manufacturers, retail specialists, tech support, sales and more.
Many of these people work in one of Apple´s 250 American retail stores which employ more than 100 workers each on average. Apple uses the fact that they don´t hire seasonal help as another point of pride, noting that they also give part-time employees the same benefits as their full-time employees.
These new updates are a part of a new marketing trend for Apple. Whereas the company once focused exclusively on highlighting their products, they´ve recently begun advertising like other companies, promoting their green practices, their customer satisfaction awards and, now, their positive impact on the economy.
As competitors like Google and Samsung grow increasingly competitive on Apple´s technology turf, Cupertino´s gurus of chic gadgetry have clearly found it necessary to go on the offensive and try a few tricks of their own.
Comments