Apple announced Thursday it is opening its first European app development center in Italy.
Slated to be located at an Apple “partner institution” in Naples, the new development center will “support teachers and provide a specialized curriculum preparing thousands of future developers” to create iOS apps.
“Europe is home to some of the most creative developers in the world and we’re thrilled to be helping the next generation of entrepreneurs in Italy get the skills they need for success,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “The phenomenal success of the App Store is one of the driving forces behind the more than 1.4 million jobs Apple has created in Europe and presents unlimited opportunities for people of all ages and businesses of all sizes across the continent.”
Out of the 1.4 million Apple jobs in Europe, the company said 1.2 million include app creators, software engineers, app entrepreneurs and others who directly and indirectly support the app economy. In Italy alone, more than 75,000 jobs are attributable to the App Store, Apple said.
A timeline for the center’s opening was not provided and the name of Apple’s partner institution in Naples was not immediately available.
Apple’s center in Italy is its second international venture to be announced this week.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is seeking to open its own retail and online stores in India. The effort would effectively move the sale of Apple products in India from a network of Indian-owned distributors back into Apple’s own hands.
The move could also be profitable for Apple, which has room to grow as the Indian mobile market continued its projected expansion. The tech giant’s smartphones currently only account for two percent of market share in India.
