(Random app developer who makes ten bucks a month asks if he's counted.)
Actually, to steal a quote from you, you're mostly wrong. Oops, no, sorry... you're entirely, utterly, totally wrong.
When Apple talks about 210k people in that industry, they're not doing something ridiculously dumb like just taking the number of app developers who have apps in the app store. They are using a 2012 TechNet study of the app development sector in the US, and using TechNet's own methodology to extrapolate the percentage of people in the mobile phone/tablet development industry that are developing for iOS/the percentage of any given company that is devoted to iOS if it is a multi-OS company.
What's really funny is, you actually correct other people, while making blind, eyes-closed assumptions like this. Whereas if you had even bothered to visit the Apple page being talked about in the post, you could have scrolled down to the bottom to read EXACTLY how the number was come up with.
It's sad when you're too lazy to even do that, but at the same time you feel you have to correct other people's impressions. It says a lot about you, really.
Let's quote what the page says, actually:
Apple Computer said:
A study by Analysis Group found that Apple has directly or indirectly created 304,000 U.S. jobs.* These jobs spread across all 50 states include thousands of jobs in numerous industries, from the people who create components for our products to the people who build the planes and trucks that carry them to our customers. For example, this figure also includes workers in Texas who manufacture processors for iOS products, Corning employees in Kentucky and New York who create the majority of the glass for iPhone, and FedEx and UPS employees. Together with the 210,000 iOS jobs generated by the app economy, these 304,000 jobs make a total of 514,000 U.S. jobs created or supported by Apple.
Odds are very strange that Corning, FedEx and UPS would have jobs without Apple. Why? People need cell phones, parts and delivery. NOW: Do you mean to say if Apple didn't exist, Corning still wouldn't make glass for other products, like they currently do? Oh wait.
Manufacture Processors for iOS products? Again, used in many products. If Apple doesn't buy them, their competitors would. So I fail to see how this is a big deal. Its true Apple can command a higher price and make things more stable, but the computer industry didn't have problems before Apple's ascendancy, and they're not having problems now (see Apple). I fail to see any evidence Apple can say that these jobs exist solely for Apple and wouldn't without Apple or any alternatives to Apple.
Apple Computer said:
With more than 550,000 apps and more than 24 billion downloads in less than four years, the App Store has created an entirely new industry: iOS app design and development. The app revolution has added more than 210,000 iOS jobs to the U.S. economy since the introduction of iPhone in 2007.** And Apple has paid more than $4 billion in royalties to developers through the App Store. We also provide app developers with the tools and distribution they need to bring their best ideas to tens of millions of iOS customers worldwide.
Oh, about that study? Guess what: Its based on want ads. There is science at play here, but its at an assumption that there are 3.5 times the position as the amount of initial ads placed, and then multiplied by 2 for total tech...and then multiplied by 1.5 due to economic impact of the company on other segments of the economy. But guess what? It seems to count each publisher as a job to size up the economy (Not so, hence my counting him). Using this assumption as reality, you have a number the study tries to hit. Even forbid a researcher trying to prove that a bunch of jobs in a sector which, again, might not even generate revenue outside of the hiree (remember that guy making $10 a month or day or whatever it was? He's a publisher and "job creator" even if he hires no one and since he services the industry, guess what? He's included in those numbers!). So you have to ask yourself about the quality of the pay in those jobs, and there is NO INFORMATION about it. Its like the general economy at play here-there's almost NEVER any mention of how well "new jobs" pay and we are told to accept it as good news. New jobs seem to never pay as well as old jobs, but...hey, look at it this way, we should accept it as great.
And comparing Apple to the auto industry is an outright joke I would add.
No doubt you want to defend Apple, and Apple's doing what's great for Apple, and they have some spillover of good into other places. That is a side effect and in my view, they could do more. They don't HAVE to do more though. And that's the problem-the company with the biggest market cap in the world, let's be honest, only hires 47,000 people. Every employee at Apple has a market cap of OVER $10M. Just think about how absurd it is to be a guy making $8/h at an Apple store, to see this...even though yes, its based on patents and what not and holdings of the company...but also let's read more about what it says on Apple's website...:
Apple Computer said:
The number of Apple jobs based in the U.S. has more than quadrupled over the past decade, from less than 10,000 employees in 2002 to more than 47,000 today. That number more than doubles again when we include vendors that employ more than 50,000 people who directly support Apple. These jobs require people with a wide variety of skills including construction workers, component manufacturers, retail specialists, tech support representatives, salespeople, marketers, and the best hardware and software engineers in the world.
Our 246 retail stores in the U.S. average well over 100 employees each the majority of whom are full-time employees. But unlike most retailers, we dont rely on seasonal hiring. And part-time Apple Store employees are eligible for the same benefits as our full-time staff, including health insurance and the employee stock purchase plan.
Back in the doldrums of Apple, it went down to less than 10,000 but we can assume above 9000. If you subtract the retail jobs-27350-from Apple's total employment-that means Apple outside Retail only hires 19,650 people, which includes clerks, interns, part timers at the HQ and what not. It is true, however, that some of the retail jobs are legit upper and middle class jobs, so we'll keep the number where it is. That means Apple has grown by leaps and bounds, but has only just about doubled its employment in the last decade. Let's make this more nasty though: 7700 jobs in Applecare, which weren't there back ten years ago-I'd be shocked if it was much above 500, but let's be conservative and say Apple had 1000 working in this. That means that Apple outside of retail and Applecare employs only 13,000 people-not outrageously good, sorry, no matter how rosey you make it.
It says a lot about you about how you're completely incapable of processing economic data. I assume that every part time job created at CVS means the economy is improving despite full time, unionized with benefits manufacturing jobs being shed. That's the point: There's no evidence that these jobs are created by Apple, there's no evidence that they're full time, there's no evidence they bring in income they improve the economy-outside of the benefits of shareholders. The study, put simply, is very broad. Even if you assume good faith, it means that Apple's market cap basically pegs its value at $1M per job, far more than 99% of those workers will ever see from their job without harsh inflation. But why would you allow facts to get in the way of your denials about the nature of the modern US economy? This argument isn't just about Apple.
Your post reeks of absolute and unforgivable ignorance. Your logic is definitively flawed, inaccurate and insufficient to warrant a read, never mind a response...but I must digress.
Let me ask you this. Do you think Apple would be the same revered, respected juggernaut in the industry if it had a profit margin of a piddly (5%..?) like you suggest. Do you think Apple would be building data centers, expanding it's retail presence and building fuel cell farms (in the US), if it sacrificed it's profits? Btw, all those aforementioned projects are sure to provide tons of HIGH QUALITY jobs for US citizens.
How about Apple's share price? Do you think Apple would be trading at $500+ if it threw all it's profits out the window (and by that I mean trying to start a viable manufacturing operation in North America). Apples outstanding share price is helping out lots of ordinary people (like myself) in providing solid investment income.
Do you think Apple would be hiring engineers by the thousands to make the next great iProduct if it's profit margin was so thin?
The answer is no, none of that could happen. Instead we'd throw away a bunch of high-skill high salary jobs for a bunch of blue collar garbage.
The migration of manufacturing jobs off-shore is the best thing to happen to North America. Who wants to make a living clipping plastic and metal together in a factory anymore?
If Apple could make it off those margins, great, they could still make it. The point is that Apple could afford to take the hit-but has NO REASON TO. That, to me, makes them immoral, but it is not a company's obligation to be moral: there is no way to force a company to be moral aside from obeying laws, and I see no evidence Apple is not doing that. If you pass a law mandating the amount of jobs per profit, you'll make a company inflexible and constantly at risk due to the law, and if you backstop it with government support, then you put the taxpayers at risk. That doesn't mean Apple is a good company for most of the economy. It isn't. Its neutral at best in that, as there's no real evidence of massive, quality job creation in the US, there's no evidence of massive job deterioration. So Apple's function is rather obvious: It makes some people a lot of money, those people are almost always rich because, let's face it, owning 100 shares of Apple is well outside of the ability of most people in this world, and influential, and it did make a few lucky people in the middle class rich. This isn't a bad thing at all-but it explains why its lauded by elites, as the smart money has owned Apple for a while and they think its great, and with good reason.
As seen above, Apple isn't hiring Engineers by the thousand. Sorry. Apple is notoriously stingy with its money, despite having how much money in the bank, overseas, mostly so it doesn't have to pay taxes on it on its profits...mostly because spending that money would mean encountering all sorts of taxes anyway (Showing the tax system is broken, as the government is getting next to none of it, and Apple can't spend its money anyway too easily) but you're wrong if you do a quick look through Apple's analysis: They're merely hiring people to sell and service their products. Not design. Not manufacture.
And who wants to work in a factory? Look towards how large of a segment the auto industry is. Who wants to do treacherous work? Look at things such as garbage pickup-public and private-in the US, let alone the energy industry.
I could care less if Apple trades at $500 a share or $5 a share. A 100-1 split wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily-but again, obviously Apple's share price isn't directly helping ordinary people for one obvious reason: Ordinary people don't own Apple stock. Outside of these message boards, I haven't met one person who owns Apple Stock. I've met plenty of people who WISH they did, I know people who trade it in their companies and make bonuses off it, but I don't know ANYONE who owns it themselves: And that's the thing about Apple Stock-its bounced off of people looking to resell. Why? They don't pay dividends, and its price is based solely off future growth and cash reserves. At the level it is at, it stinks of a bubble solely because they're not returning any investment to the investor, and they don't need to, so long as people are willing to buy something solely because it moves up in price. Again, Apple is doing nothing wrong and I understand the technicals are good, but the reality is Apple is a LARGE company in terms of valuation and they have no excuse for not paying dividends aside from TAX EVASION-which is allowable because the market isn't demanding it. So Apple is only helping a select group, not "ordinary people" unless you have the same logic as TARP helping prevent unemployment by letting banks have access to individual savings, individual investments, AND taxes.
Your post reeks of unforgivable ignorance itself: You realize that your type of post, ignoring reality and the middle class is the reason you have OWS, Tea Party and such movements? They just know their middle class jobs (in the Tea Party) have been taken away, and the OWS people know they're not going to get the jobs promised to them. Why? Because we should be thankful that we have easily replaceable service jobs that provide no hard commodity or manufactured jobs and can be taken offline in a second?
And I don't care about "Respect and revered"-that doesn't mean "Good" as much as "feared" and "powerful"-to me, neutral terms used to turn heads of people who don't know better.
The Texan Microprocessor fabrication as well as the Corning Glass production to me are evidence that the iPhone is made partially in the US as well. This shows your argument is bunk about the assembly of the iPhone in the US due to the fact these components are US components and reasonably priced. The screens? Those are probably made with parts coming from Japan or Korea as well, which pay middle class wages. Why are these not too expensive for companies involved? Because it turns out that labor isn't nearly as expensive as people like you think.
Enjoy your Apple Stock though, and think that you're one of the rest of us with it. One share would buy 100 subway sandwiches and most people live paycheck to paycheck...so if that middle class person skips 100 dinners, I suppose they can afford 1 share of Apple, so long as they buy it now and not in 100 days.
