Il Sole 24 Ore

Apple: over one and a half million places in Europe thanks to the App Store

–by Biagio Simonetta

It all began in 1980 in Cork, Ireland. There were about 60 employees for what was the first presence of Apple in Europe. Today the situation is quite different. The Cupertino, CA based company has become a global technology giant. And in Europe — according to data released by Apple — it has contributed to creating more than 1.76 million jobs, thanks to the economy that revolves around iOS. Of these, 1.57 million are attributable to the ecosystem of Apple’s App Store and 170,000 to the relationship that Apple has with its European suppliers. Europe is also home to 22,000 Apple employees in 19 countries.

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In Italy

In Italy, Apple has 1,624 employees and 16 retail stores, and plans are underway for the 17th Apple store in Italy in Piazza Liberty in Milan. Italy has the 5th largest economy of iOS apps and supports 62,000 jobs linked to the App Store ecosystem (of which 25,000 are in Milan, making it the 12th most prominent city of the app economy in Europe). In 2016 Apple opened its first iOS Developer Academy in partnership with Federico II University in Naples to give students, both Italian and international, the opportunity to learn the practical skills and to receive the specific training in app development and entrepreneurship the App economy requires. 44 students in the current course won a scholarship to attend the recent Annual Apple Developer Conference held in San José, California. Apple works with 261 Italian suppliers.

One of these suppliers is Laboratorio Elettrofisico, which designs and manufactures magnetization instruments and high-precision magnetic measurement instruments. Their technology enables some of the magnetic features found in Apple products. Laboratorio Elettrofisico has been a leader in the design and construction of magnetic instruments for almost 60 years, with offices in the United States and China.