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Apple to Open iOS App Development Centers, Starting in Italy

MacRumors said:

(...)
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company's ecosystem now supports 1.4 million jobs in Europe, including 1.2 million jobs attribute to the app economy. In Italy, specifically, Apple said over 75,000 jobs are linked to the App Store.
Article Link: Apple to Open iOS App Development Centers, Starting in Italy
(...)
Apple recorded a record-breaking $1.1 billion in App Store sales during the 2015 holiday season. Christmas Day and New Year's Day both set single-day records, with customers spending over $144 million on January 1, 2016 inparticular.
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Where do these numbers come from and what do the mean exactly?
I am referring to "supports 1.2 million jobs"; "75,000 jobs are linked to the App Store".

Lets see, theres appr. 1 million jobs linked to the App Store in the US, appr. 1 million in europe (and from my experience, I would guesstimate at least the same number in India, China & Russia each).

For the sake of the argument, lets only do the following calculation with the 2 million US & EU jobs:
$10 billion revenue in 2015 (more ore less, the exact number is not important), of those 7 billion paid out to developers

That makes 1,750 US dollars per job "linked" to the App store per year.

So, this makes the number basically ********.
Cook could just as well say "3 million jobs in europe are supported by the app store (each by $500) but who cares".
A clearer and more sincere argument would be something along the lines of "60,000 FTE (at 35k$) jobs are completely funded and paid for by app store revenue in europe each year.
 
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I would like to see Apple move into young people's coding education. We already have some great apps out there for kids to code in, Scatch, Greenfoot, code academy and the like but there is plenty of room for more.

I wonder if Apple have considered making a friendly version of xCode, one which allowed new learners to pick up basic coding syntax in an environment that didn't punish them for semantic errors. Swift is certainly a step in this direction but the IDE itself is too foreboding for young learners to access. A simple IDE that allowed them to push their own apps to their own devices would be brilliant.

Kids get a real thrill from coding when they can control the outcomes. Simple text based games amaze early learners even more than amazing graphics. Xcode as it stands would need to lose 90% of its functionality to be at all useful to 8 year olds.

In the meantime, well done Apple for getting into the coding education space. I think you have the power and resources to do so much more though.
 
well, being an Italian I am honored and happy about it: I hope it is a good sign for a rebound of our stagnant economy.
I am from Rome, but I had to live abroad for 3+ years now (Astana, Kazakhstan now)
 
Rogifan said:
Not saying this isn't a good idea but I have a feeling there is some politics behind this. Otherwise why would Apple pick Europe first?
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My guess is the reason may be very simply that the idea for this was born there within Apple in conjunction with a local university. If that's the case, then why not start there and expand it? When I worked for Aldus/Adobe back in the 90's our European arm started several initiatives that were adopted worldwide.

BTW... I think it's a great idea. The more young developers are comfortable with Swift and developing for iOS the more support Apple will get from the younger development community.
 
WalterTizzano said:
Why not? It's the third largest Italian city, the biggest in the south of the country and the one where many innovations in science an techology came from in the past decades and centuries. It has a huge university and it's a great city.
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...and probably FREE PARKING, which is important!
 
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isserley said:
That makes 1,750 US dollars per job "linked" to the App store per year.

So, this makes the number basically ********.
Click to expand...

There are tons of free commercial apps. Apps that let you buy this or that, and make a lot of money, and not a penny of revenue is coming from the AppStore.
 
isserley said:
Where do these numbers come from and what do the mean exactly?
I am referring to "supports 1.2 million jobs"; "75,000 jobs are linked to the App Store".

Lets see, theres appr. 1 million jobs linked to the App Store in the US, appr. 1 million in europe (and from my experience, I would guesstimate at least the same number in India, China & Russia each).

For the sake of the argument, lets only do the following calculation with the 2 million US & EU jobs:
$10 billion revenue in 2015 (more ore less, the exact number is not important), of those 7 billion paid out to developers

That makes 1,750 US dollars per job "linked" to the App store per year.

So, this makes the number basically ********.
Cook could just as well say "3 million jobs in europe are supported by the app store (each by $500) but who cares".
A clearer and more sincere argument would be something along the lines of "60,000 FTE (at 35k$) jobs are completely funded and paid for by app store revenue in europe each year.
Click to expand...
They can't really say it because the numbers are fuzzy - there are a ton of apps that have revenue streams not linked to the App Store, but without the App Store they wouldn't exist. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Uber, AirBnB, Lyft, etc. all pay a ton of iOS developers nice salaries, but not a cent of their paychecks are paid out from the 7 billion Apple paid out because their revenue comes from App Store users, but outside the App Store.

But it does point out the main problem with the App Store - running a business based solely on paid apps is not viable like it used to be 4 or so years ago. The market is just too saturated.
 
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ppcebay said:
Naples is the home town of very creative people.... don't know what your problem is with that city ;)

They invented the Pizza (the real one not the Pizza Hut one ;);))
Click to expand...
"The common belief is that Italians invented pizza, but its origin goes back to ancient times in the Middle East. Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians, Armenians, Greeks and Romans, and other ancient cultures ate flat, unleavened bread cooked in mud ovens."
 
I'm really pleased with this development. A great example of Apple taking and investing in the long view. Italy seems like an excellent place to get the ball rolling. A great investment overall.
 
Popeye206 said:
My guess is the reason may be very simply that the idea for this was born there within Apple in conjunction with a local university. If that's the case, then why not start there and expand it? When I worked for Aldus/Adobe back in the 90's our European arm started several initiatives that were adopted worldwide.

BTW... I think it's a great idea. The more young developers are comfortable with Swift and developing for iOS the more support Apple will get from the younger development community.
Click to expand...

My guess is that the younger development community in the U.S. is already very focused on iOS. Frankly, I can't see a good reason why a young developer would focus on coding into any OS other than iOS. You should focus on coding for browsers and iOS, that is it, if you want to do something fresh and independent. I see some young developers coding toward Android and I get that. But the folks that are a bit older and have more insight into business models and economics are focused on iOS. Maybe there are engineers who are excited to get into updating the Microsoft Office Suite, but for most that has to be something they fall into to get a job and pay the bills. And maybe this is different in Europe where iOS is on closer to even footing with Android.
 
Yelmurc said:
I've always through Apple should just start its own university. Use iTunes U and train the people they need for their business. Make the curriculum really hard os if people get through it its almost like interview process. Maybe even charge them to take the tests to get credit. Then they'd always have the people with the skills they need to build what ever products they need.
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I think the problem with that is you get too cut off from the real world. Apple already has a bit of that problem... they made iTunes Radio because they were clueless about Spotify.

By hiring people who go to universities around the world, you end up with a diverse source of input. You keep up with what's going on outside your company and know when, IE, some startup is breaking new ground in AI, or voice recognition, or CPU design, or glass manufacturing.

It's good to come up with your own original ideas, but you also need to know about other people's ideas so you don't diverge too far from reality.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
I think the problem with that is you get too cut off from the real world. Apple already has a bit of that problem... they made iTunes Radio because they were clueless about Spotify.

By hiring people who go to universities around the world, you end up with a diverse source of input. You keep up with what's going on outside your company and know when, IE, some startup is breaking new ground in AI, or voice recognition, or CPU design, or glass manufacturing.

It's good to come up with your own original ideas, but you also need to know about other people's ideas so you don't diverge too far from reality.
Click to expand...

It's pretty common that people are only looking at things with the eyes of the country they live in.
USA happens to be super big in size, one language, one culture (kind of) and you can spend your entire life traveling it.
Only when one travels the world does one get the insights you are talking about. Even traveling alone isn't that great. Living in another country and culture is the real education.

It is not unusual that people land at JFK in New York, take a few city tours and think now they know America.

Apple (or any US company) would be well served being as international as possible.

Other people in other countries also have creative ideas, so why not make use of them?
 
SirCheese said:
"The common belief is that Italians invented pizza, but its origin goes back to ancient times in the Middle East. Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians, Armenians, Greeks and Romans, and other ancient cultures ate flat, unleavened bread cooked in mud ovens."
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The word "pizza" was first documented in 997 AD in Gaeta,Italy, and successively in different parts of Central and Southern Italy. The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as "panis focacius", to which toppings were then added.

Pizza is Italian......even if you talk about focaccia is still italian as modern Italians are direct descendants of ancient Romans anyway.

And not only they invented it, they make the best one too.

sofila said:
It took almost 3 posts to put Italy and Pizza in the same post. Come on, you all can do better than this.
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There is a lot more in Italy than Pizza Pasta and mandolino (as an Italian....born and raised here!!! I know better!!) and there is also more than Milan Rome Pisa and Venice in Italy..... but for most American Italy is Mafia, pizza, pasta, mandolino, lasagna, Milan, Rome, Venice, Pisa ....hence the comment of WHY Naples someone made in the first 2 comments ;)

I don't see anything bad in butting Italy and Pizza together though .....and now i am Hungry!!
 
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