“I was having a discussion with a few executives at a technology summit I was attending, and an interesting question was asked to me concerning what America would look like without Apple,” Ben Bajarin writes for TIME Magazine. One “interesting thing to look at it is what America’s corporate earnings would look like at large without Apple. In the fourth quarter Apple gave the S&P 500 a significant boost: S&P 500 companies grew at about 6% year over year. If you take Apple out of that equation, the growth would drop to 3%. Many financial-analyst notes I saw mentioned this, pointing out that the S&P 500 was basically rescued by Apple.”
“There’s another interesting point that I think often gets overlooked on this topic: how Apple has basically reinvigorated the software industry for computers. It’s done this by way of apps, but to some degree it’s happening with desktop and notebook software as well,” Bajarin writes. “According to Apple’s own estimates, looking at the iOS app economy, this new industry — iOS design and development — has created 210,000 jobs and growing in the U.S.”
Bajarin writes, “As important as Apple has been to the broader economic market, I think the most important way that Apple has benefited America is in terms of technological competitiveness. Apple has been incredibly important — especially over the past decade — to America’s competitiveness in terms of global technology leadership. The iPod initially kicked off this trend, but the iPhone is the device that really set it in stone.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]