14 DAY TRIAL // In announcing the start of two massive cloud projects in Denmark and Ireland, Apple has dished out a few tidbits regarding its European operations, including how much it has paid so far to developers, job creation on the old continent, and more.
Apple has never given Europe its full attention - at least not in the way China captured its interest in the last few years - but it seems the old continent has become important for the iPhone maker as of late. So much so that it is willing to invest billions to create two new data centers, one in Ireland, the other in Denmark, that will help power cloud operations across the old continent.
672,000 European jobs, 530,000 iOS devs
In announcing plans to build these massive data centers to power cloud services across Europe, Apple also put forth some numbers that help us paint a better picture about the importance of this marketplace for Tim Cook’s company.
Apple today reveals that it supports almost 672,000 European jobs. 530,000 of these jobs are directly related to iOS development. These are either indie devs, or entire studios with dozens of employees.
Perhaps even more exciting is the amount of money paid out to developers since the App Store’s inception in 2008: €6.6 billion ($7.51 billion).
2,000 new staffers just in the past year
As far as all European operations are concerned, Apple now directly employs 18,300 people across 19 countries in Europe. In the past 12 months, it has added no less than 2,000 new jobs.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said “We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent. This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
Last year, together with European companies and suppliers, Apple spent north of €7.8 billion ($8.88 billion) on building products and support operations.