Apple is confident that its student developer programme will continue to hone more talent in the Middle East and contribute to the growth of start-ups and entrepreneurship, a senior executive at the company has said.
The iPhone maker is positioning its educational initiatives in places where developers will have a chance to closely interact with the Cupertino-based company, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives, said during a media roundtable in Dubai.
“The vitality of the region in general and everything going on [within the developer community] is impressive,” Ms Jackson told The National on the sidelines of the roundtable held ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference.
“We try to aim to give them opportunities to interact with us, and build their own business or opportunity … and make sure they have the same access to the App Store as these big companies do.”
Apple opened its first developer academy in Brazil in 2013, and the company now has more than a dozen of these institutions globally, according to its website.
The company opened its first developer academy in the Middle East and North Africa region in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in February 2022. The academy focuses on training female developers – another first for the region.
Apple does not provide region-specific figures for its academies, but globally, these institutions have helped students create more than 1,500 apps and establish more than 160 new companies, according to Apple.
The UAE is home to a culturally diverse society with more than 200 nationalities living and working in the Emirates, an advantage that Apple is leveraging as it is able to “get more ideas” on how to better address developers and their localisation of app requirements, said Ms Jackson, the former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration.
“One of the important things is that you can't be in the UAE and not realise that it’s the kind of place where so many people come together,” she said.
“We have students coming from very diverse backgrounds, and we see how critical thinking and challenge-based learning have changed their entire approach to their career, family and entrepreneurship.”
The global app market continues to grow, and app marketplaces have developed several initiatives to attract developers to help expand their digital offerings.
Apple began the app revolution when it launched App Store in 2008, and the number of third-party apps on the platform has grown significantly since then.
From an initial 500, it has surged to more than 1.8 million, representing nearly 100 per cent of all apps, according to Apple.
While significantly below market leader Google Play in terms of the total number of apps – about 3.5 million, according to Statista – the App Store still leads in revenue as iPhone sales tend to be higher in countries with bigger incomes.
The iPhone maker does not specify how much the App Store makes in its financial reports, even though it is part of its strong services segment.
Apple said earlier this month that its services revenue grew 5.5 per cent to $20.9 billion in its second fiscal quarter, making it the company's biggest growth segment.
We have students coming from very diverse backgrounds, and we see how critical thinking and challenge-based learning have changed their entire approach to their career, family and entrepreneurship
Lisa Jackson,
Apple’s vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives
In January, Apple said about $920 billion has been paid to developers selling digital goods and services since the App Store's launch in 2008.
Smaller developers on the App Store, meanwhile, have grown their revenue by 71 per cent since 2020, outpacing their larger counterparts, a new study found earlier this month.
Aside from its academies, the company also has its Today at Apple programme, which organises educational and creative sessions conducted in Apple Stores. The UAE has four Apple stores, two each in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“Hopefully we [developers] can play a part in making the UAE into a global hub for innovation,” said Sabrina Sales, a 14-year-old developer.
Sabrina, originally from the Philippines, is a two-time winner of the Worldwide Developer Conference’s student programme and is aiming for a third straight award at this year's event, which kicks off on June 5.
“I also hope to establish my own start-up in the future,” she told The National.
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
