More Than Just Fun and Games, Apps Drive U.S. Economic Growth

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"The app economy represents over 450,000 jobs in the United States."
Oh that's great. Apple and Microsoft have more than 1.5 million employees in China making their shoddy products. Thanks, Steve Jobless.
I've had 3 Apple product fail in the past 2 years. But hey, what can you expect from a product built by a worker making 50 cents a day, working in a hellish sweat shop?
Gates gives some of his billions to charity so I guess that helps him sleep at night.
And Jobs? He's snoozing in the "Big Sleep".... If he's lucky.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 1:06PM March 10, 2012

Unfortunately TechNet sees math, statistics, and facts as being more abstract concepts where lines are blurred between fact and fantasy.
If a guy builds an app over a few weekends - while not entirely sober - walla a new job has been created. If a person was able to convince people in his family and circle of friends to download the app - another job. It doesn't matter that the hours invested never produced income - if they are lucky enough to buy a steak dinner.
I have an acquaintance that built a rather popular app for a vendor (who is a technet member). This is an app taking months to develop and actually quite fun (my kids play it all the time). The money he made back was enough to make a couple monthly house payments. If you calculate the hours worked and the return, we are talking less than minimum wage.
The app market has produced very few sustainable or long-term jobs - at least for developers. One could argue that these apps drive interest in the mobile devices and produce jobs for people who manufacture, license, and sell those devices. But TechNet has always been very creative in their "studies" so I wouldn't take it at face value.
Were jobs created? Of course. But nowhere near half a million full-time jobs.
This is spin and the goal is to distract you from the fact that these TechNet companies have sent millions of jobs offshore while at the same time requesting more guest worker visas onshore.
Even if their pipe-dream job creation engine produced 450k jobs in the US (which it didn't) the jobs they have created offshore and have sent offshore make that number seem very insignificant.
Did Harris Miller come back to lobby for the IT industry? This looks like the type of spin he would release. If did someone else decide to give Miller a run for his money and out whore him?

R. Lawson of FL 11:31AM March 09, 2012