Apple today announced that customers around the world made this holiday season the biggest ever for the App Store, setting new records during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s.
Worldwide, the App Store has brought in nearly $40 billion for developers since 2008, with over one-third generated in the last year alone.
Largely as a result of the App Store’s success, Apple is now responsible for creating and supporting 1.9 million jobs in the U.S. alone. Nearly three-quarters of those jobs — over 1.4 million — are attributable to the community of app creators, software engineers and entrepreneurs building apps for iOS, as well as non-IT jobs supported directly and indirectly through the app economy.
Apple has previously reported that the iOS app economy has created 1.2 million jobs in Europe and 1.4 million jobs in China.
Apple has faced criticism over where its products are manufactured and the way workers are treated. Press reports and protests have called for the company to either stop relying on low-wage workers in China and other countries to produce its products or to offer them better working and living conditions.
