Apple’s iOS App Economy Drives Almost 300K Jobs in the U.S.

The New York Times has published a lengthy article about Apple, this time taking a closer look at how it is challenging to find success as an iOS developer. The story profiles various developers, seemingly portraying a picture it is not as easy as it sounds to create that monster hit in the App Store–although you can get lucky.

The story does refer to the early days of the App Store, when the developer of the artillery game, iShoot, (remember that one?) earned more than $1 million dollars in two months back in 2009. However, times have definitely changed.

Apple updated its ‘Job Creation’ page to reveal there are 291,250 jobs in the U.S. driven by the iOS app economy, a number they derived from a 2012 TechNet study (which said overall there are 466,000 jobs in the U.S. as a result of the app economy):

Using the same keyword search methodology employed by the study’s authors at the time of its release, we found that 45 percent of job postings in the app economy are specifically tied to iPhone and iOS, indicating that at least 291,250 jobs are driven by the iOS app economy.

app economy

Apple told the NYT it was “incredibly proud of the opportunities the App Store gives developers of all sizes,” which falls in line with what the company always has to share about the App Store during media events.

This isn’t the first time where the issue of trying to make it big in the App Store has come up. Back in May, marketing firm App Promo released details of a study that noted 80 percent of developers don’t generate enough revenue to support a standalone business.

Last September, a Canadian developer’s own survey revealed the top 20 percent of developers earned 97 percent of App Store revenue. Creating a hit app ain’t easy, unless you have the right skill set and resources to go at it full time.

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