Apple App Store turns 10 with 500 mn weekly visitors in 155 countries

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store

Customers in 155 countries are visiting Apple App Store more often, staying longer and downloading and using more apps than ever before, the Cupertino-based iPhone giant has said.

App Store, that will turn 10 on July 10, now sees 500 million weekly visitors and hundreds of stories on the "Today" tab that have been read by more than 1 million people.

"When Apple introduced the App Store on July 10, 2008, with 500 apps, it ignited a cultural, social and economic phenomenon that changed how people work, play, meet, travel and so much more," Apple said in a statement on Friday.

With the introduction of in-app purchase (IAP) in 2009, customers could download an app and then pay to unlock different levels and functionality.

By June 2010, $1 billion were paid out to developers from IAP and paid apps.

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store, the company informed.

"In its first decade, the App Store has surpassed all of our wildest expectations. We could not be more proud of what developers have created and what the next 10 years have in store," said Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Apple.

According to Marco Arment, a long-time iOS developer, App Store has been by far the easiest way for developers to reach the most people with his apps.

"It eliminated the friction and overhead of setting up our own distribution and payment systems, making development far more accessible to everyone and letting us focus on our true passion: making the best apps we can," he said.

Later, start-ups including Instagram, Calm, Uber and Instacart embraced features like the iPhone camera, Apple Pay, GPS and Location Services to deliver on-demand and personalised experiences -- with many creating billion-dollar businesses that started with apps in the App Store.

"At the same time, both traditional companies and those that started as websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Yelp, Airbnb and Amazon, began building apps to meet changing customer behaviour," Apple said.

The App Store brought gaming mainstream owing to the Multi-Touch technology on iPhone and iPad and the convenience of playing on the go.

Article Source : BS

Infosys puts a break on fresher hiring, relying more on experienced hands

Share of young engineers in 18-25 age group drops to 28% in FY18, senior staff ratio goes up

India’s second-largest information technology company, Infosys, is relying more on experienced hands than fresh graduates even though it weighs to its costs, according to the company’s latest annual report. This is happening when the sector is witnessing slower growth with increasing pressure on profit margins.

According to the latest annual report for 2017-18, the percentage of the Bengaluru-headquartered company’s employees in the age group of 18-25, came down to 28.16 per cent, from 31.19 per cent in the previous financial year. In absolute terms, the number of employees in this group was 57,475, against 62,489 in FY17. Employees in this group largely constitute of newly-hired engineers from colleges.

The percentage of employees above this age group had gone up during this period. For example, employees in the age group of 26-30 constituted 32.25 per cent of the total staff strength in FY18, against 32.09 per cent in the previous year. Similarly, mid-level employees in the age group of 31-40, constituted 32.5 per cent, which rose 168 basis points over the previous financial year. The ratio of employees in the 41-50 age group also saw a rise of 100 basis points over the previous financial year to 5.92 per cent. However, despite the higher ratio of experienced staff in workforce, Infosys incurred only 3.6 per cent rise in expenses towards salaries and bonus in FY18 to Rs 346.7 billion.

The change in Infosys’s employee mix also reflects the growing trend of slower fresher hiring by Indian IT firms, expected to gain pace in the current financial year as well. Owing to uncertain demand environment and changes in client demands, Indian IT companies are hiring fewer number of freshers while majority of them are resorting to just-in-time hiring in case of lateral (experienced ones).

“The intake of fresh engineers by Indian IT firms is certainly going to drop further as companies are seen steadily improving their (employee) utilisation rates. While they are no more hiring in bulk through campus recruitment programmes, the normal attrition in higher age groups is also less owing to lesser avenues outside which means the ratio of senior staff that the sector employs will go up,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, chief executive officer & managing director of Head Hunters India.

Infosys said the percentage of senior management level employees in the age group of 51-60 was 1.03 per cent, against 0.90 per cent in FY17.

Employees above 60 years of age constituted 0.19 per cent of the overall strength, which was at 0.14 per cent in the previous financial year.

Job insecurity gives way to India's 1st IT workers union in Tamil Nadu

Previous attempts to organise 2.8 million employees of the country's IT sector have failed

In 2008, as Tamil Nadu erupted in angry protests against the killings of Sri Lankan Tamils during that country’s civil war, a group of young software professionals in Chennai’s Tidel Park banded together to form a human chain. “Stop the War, Save Tamils” was their demand – a slogan that featured on posters, T-shirts and Orkut posts.

Nine years later, their agitation has led to the formation of India’s first independent union for information technology employees. Amid reports of large-scale layoffs by several Indian software firms companies, the Forum for Information TechnologyEmployees, which evolved from the campaign to protect Tamils in Sri Lanka, is in the process of getting itself registered formally as a union for technology employees in India. It will be the first independent association of its kind in the country.

Previous attempts to organise the estimated 2.8 million employees of the country’s information technology sector have failed to make much headway. “Normally, the middle class has an aversion to political activity,” said J Jayaprakash, a member of the forum.

But in recent months, insecurity has been running high among India’s information technology employees. Approximately 4.5% of employees are expected to lose their jobs over the next few months, reported Mint, attribution the turbulence to the companies’ “under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies and dealing with the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies”. It added that at least 56,0000 employees of top software companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant are expected to lose their jobs over the next year.

This uncertainty has made employees realise the need for collective action. Said Jayaprakash: “Since we ourselves are IT employees who have started this, people trust us to take up their issues. It is a homegrown solution to their problems.” Read more