Apple’s App Store creates jobs and grows the economy

With regulators breathing down its neck, Apple has published reports that claims over 2.2 million U.S. jobs rely on the iOS app economy. Not only that, but small developers on the iOS ecosystem are earning 118 percent more than they did two years ago

Apple’s App Store has created millions of jobs

Apple really, really wants to make the case (and it’s a good case) that its iOS app economy is an engine of economic growth and opportunity that must be strenuously protected, developed and supported.

It also looked at what it calls the “entrepreneurial path” taken by developers of three apps: booking and payments app, PocketSuite, self-care app for panic attacks, Rootd and job hiring app, Chamba. “In early 2020, I was unemployed trying to launch a business when the whole country was laying people off, but thankfully Chamba made it through and better than that, we’re growing,” said Chamba developer, Diego Montemayor.

Apple also told us the App Store currently hosts 1.8 million apps and is visited by more than 600 million people each week. Worldwide, there are over 30 million registered developers. The company also wanted to draw attention to the App Store Small Business Program, which includes a 15 percent reduced commissionrate to support small and individual developers who earn up to $1 million in revenue.

Morgan Stanley recently said it expects the App Store to generate $7.2 billion of net revenue in the current quarter, up 15% on last year and sees signs of more.

What the Small Business & App Creators report says

“Spotlight on Small Business & App Creators on the App Store” — conducted by independent economists from Analysis Group — found that developers’ earnings have increased significantly over the past two years. downloads, saw an above-average increase of 118 percent in earnings since 2019.

There are other stats to consider:

• New to the App Store developers in 2021 came from everywhere: approximately 24 percent came from Europe, 23 percent from China, 14 percent from the US, 4.3 percent from Japan, and 34 percent from other regions including Korea, India, and Brazil.
• In the UK, the number of small developers new to the App Store grew by almost 40 percent since 2019, while in Germany, it grew by over 25 percent.
• Around 40 percent of all downloads of apps from small businesses and emerging app creators came from users outside of the developers’ home countries in 2021.
• 45 percent of today’s large developers were either not on the App Store, or had less than $10,000 in earnings, just five years ago.

[Also read: Apple approves 1,000 new App Store apps each day – report]

What the US App Economy Update tells us

The US App Economy Update from the Progressive Policy Institute explains how the iOS app economy has helped create millions of jobs — ranging from software development, to sales, to designers, and more.

That research finds that while the U.S. economy added 13 million jobs between July 2008 to early 2022, the App Economy has grown from zero to 2.564 million jobs, including indirect and spill over jobs in the same time.

In other words, Apples App Store has contributed about 20% of job growth since its inception – which rather implies that whatever regulation is applied around that sector needs to be smart enough not to break that golden egg/

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