Managing a national economy can’t be easy – with well-known industry sectors like vehicle manufacturing shutting down in Australia the focus is often on the doom and gloom of job losses and what that means. Now while growth in other areas doesn’t equate to jobs for those who will be out of work when Ford, Holden and Toyota shut down – we should take time to look at the growth Australia is seeing and enjoying in the Digital Economy too.
The “Progressive Policy Institute” last week released a report which estimates that the “App Economy” employed roughly 140,000 workers in Australia. 77,000 of those were in NSW.
It also found that Australian cities like Melbourne and Sydney fare well against global counterparts when it comes to the App Economy.
Aussies love the internet, and we love our mobile phones – and we’re using both in droves – so when people have App ideas, it’s actually great to know there is a strong local industry to support them.
Apple has a huge role to play in that growth – the iPhone created the App market, the App economy, and Google too now has a huge role to play in changing forever how our Information Technology industry is structured.
Apple say “The App Store has added more than 70,000 jobs to the Australian economy as our vibrant and diverse developer community grows, creating and selling more apps to customers around the world. We are proud of the contribution we are making to Australia through the app economy, as well as our 21 extremely popular retail stores and the 2750 people Apple employs here directly.”
On the iOS operating system there are Over 1 million apps, there have been more than 75 billion downloads from the App Store globally and the people putting those apps together have earned US$20 billion for sales of their apps through the App Store (Globally), nearly half of which have been earned in the past 12-months.
As a parent, it’s great to know there is a growth industry in this country – and if you’re looking for a way to justify your kids ‘screen time’ – lets hope they get an inkling for development.
