By DAVID STREITFELD CITY BULLDOZERS AFTER THE STORM, · 2020-04-01 · CITY BULLDOZERS Clearing of Homes Will Alter Neighborhoods Continued on Page 27 By MARK LANDLER WASHINGTON —

By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER

GAZA CITY — Israel broad-ened its assault on the Gaza Stripon Saturday from mostly militarytargets to centers of governmentinfrastructure, obliterating thefour-story headquarters of theHamas prime minister with abarrage of five bombs beforedawn.

The attack, one of several ongovernment installations, came aday after the prime minister, Is-mail Haniya, hosted his Egyptiancounterpart in that very building,a sign of Hamas’s new legitimacyin a radically redrawn Arabworld. That stature was under-scored Saturday by a visit toGaza from the Tunisian foreignminister and the rapid conver-gence in Cairo of two Hamas al-lies, the prime minister of Turkeyand the crown prince of Qatar, fortalks with the Egyptian presidentand the chairman of Hamas on apossible cease-fire.

But as the fighting ended itsfourth day, with Israel continuingpreparations for a ground inva-sion, the conflict showed no signof abating. Gaza militants againfired long-range missiles at TelAviv, among nearly 60 thatsoared into Israel on Saturday.Israel said it hit more than 200targets overnight in Gaza, andcontinued with afternoon strikeson the home of a Hamas com-mander and on a motorcycle-rid-ing militant.

The White House reiterated itsstrong support for Israel, withBen Rhodes, the deputy nationalsecurity adviser, describing rock-et fire from Gaza as “the precip-itating factor for the conflict.”

“We believe Israel has a rightto defend itself, and they’ll maketheir own decisions about the tac-tics that they use in that regard,”Mr. Rhodes told reporters on AirForce One en route to Asia.

Hamas health officials said 45Palestinians had been killed and385 wounded since Wednesday’sescalation in the cross-borderbattle. In Israel, 3 Israeli civilianshave died and 63 have been in-jured. Four soldiers were alsowounded on Saturday.

Two rockets were fired at Tel

Israel Widens Gaza Assault,Hitting Government Targets

Diplomats Confer inCairo, Pressing for

a Cease-Fire

TYLER HICKS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A man who was injured by bombing in Gaza City on Saturday that also killed one person. Israel said it hit more than 200 targets.

U(D5E71D)x+[!/!_!#!$A California law requiring registeredsex offenders to register their e-mail ad-dresses, user names and other Internethandles is being challenged. PAGE 16

NATIONAL 16-24

Sex Offenders and E-MailPrivatization of industry is viewed asone of Greece’s last hopes for luring for-eign money. But the effort has beensputtering. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Stumbling Block in Greece Nicholas D. Kristof PAGE 11

EDITORIAL IN SUNDAY REVIEW

President Obama is making his firstoverseas trip after the election to Chi-na’s backyard as America’s emphasisshifts toward the region. PAGE 11

INTERNATIONAL 5-14

A Rebalancing Act in Asia

VOL. CLXII . . No. 55,959 © 2012 The New York Times NEW YORK, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012

By ETHAN BRONNER

TEL AVIV — When Israel as-sassinated the top Hamas mil-itary commander in Gaza onWednesday, setting off the cur-rent round of fierce fighting, itwas aiming not just at a Palestin-ian leader but at a supply line ofrockets from Iran that have forthe first time given Hamas theability to strike as far as Tel Avivand Jerusalem.

The commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, had shifted Hamas’s low-grade militia into a disciplinedforce with sophisticated weaponslike Fajr-5 rockets, which arenamed after the Persian word fordawn and have significantly in-creased the danger to Israel’smajor cities. They have a rangeof about 45 miles and are fired bytrained crews from undergroundlaunching pads.

Hamas had perhaps 100 ofthem until the Israeli attacks lastweek, which appear to have de-stroyed most of the stockpile. Therockets are assembled locally af-ter being shipped from Iran toSudan, trucked across the desertthrough Egypt, broken down intoparts and moved through Sinaitunnels into Gaza, according tosenior Israeli security officials.

The smuggling route involvessalaried employees from Hamasalong the way, Iranian technicalexperts traveling on forged pass-ports and government approvalin Sudan, Israeli officials said.

Mr. Jabari’s strategy has beenso effective and alarming for Is-rael that it is preparing for a pos-sible next stage in the four-day-old battle: a ground war in whichits troops would seek to destroyremaining rocket launching bas-es and crews and munitions fac-tories.

Under Mr. Jabari, Hamas alsodeveloped its own weapons in-dustry in Gaza, building long-range rockets as well as dronesthat they hoped to fly over Israeljust as Israeli drones roam the

With Longer Reach,Rockets BolsterHamas Arsenal

Continued on Page 18

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

New York City is moving to de-molish hundreds of homes in theneighborhoods hit hardest byHurricane Sandy, after a grim as-sessment of the storm-ravagedcoast revealed that many struc-tures were so damaged they posea danger to public safety and oth-er buildings nearby.

About 200 homes will be bull-dozed in the coming weeks andmonths, almost all of them one-and two-family houses on StatenIsland, in Queens and Brooklyn.That is in addition to 200 housesthat are already partially or com-pletely burned down, washedaway or otherwise damaged;those sites will also be cleared.

The Buildings Department isstill inspecting nearly 500 otherdamaged structures, some ofwhich could also be razed, ac-cording to the commissioner,Robert L. LiMandri.

Mr. LiMandri, in an interviewlate last week, said neither he norhis staff could recall the city everundertaking this kind of broad re-shaping of its neighborhoods.

“We’ve never had this scale be-fore,” Mr. LiMandri said. “This iswhat New Yorkers have readabout in many other places andhave never seen, so it is definitelyunprecedented. And by the sametoken, when you walk around inthese communities, people arescared and worried, and we’retrying to make every effort to beup front and share with themwhat they need to do.”

No decisions have been madeabout rebuilding in the storm-battered areas — a complicatedquestion that would involve notonly homeowners, but also insur-ers and officials in the state, localand federal governments. Someof the houses that are being torndown were built more than a half-

AFTER THE STORM,CITY BULLDOZERS

Clearing of Homes WillAlter Neighborhoods


By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — Susan E.Rice was playing stand-in on themorning of Sept. 16 when she ap-peared on five Sunday news pro-grams, a few days after the dead-ly attack in Benghazi, Libya, thatkilled four Americans.

Secretary of State Hillary Rod-ham Clinton would have been theWhite House’s logical choice todiscuss the chaotic events in theMiddle East, but she was drainedafter a harrowing week, adminis-tration officials said. Even if shehad not been consoling the fam-ilies of those who died, includingAmbassador J. Christopher Ste-vens, Mrs. Clinton typicallysteers clear of the Sunday shows.

So instead, Ms. Rice, the am-bassador to the United Nations,delivered her now-infamous ac-count of the episode. Recitingtalking points supplied by intelli-gence agencies, she said that theBenghazi siege appeared to havebeen a spontaneous protest laterhijacked by extremists, not a pre-meditated terrorist attack. With-in days, Republicans in Congress

were calling for her head.In her sure-footed ascent of the

foreign-policy ladder, Ms. Ricehas rarely shrunk from a fight.But now that she appears poisedto claim the top rung — WhiteHouse aides say she is PresidentObama’s favored candidate forsecretary of state — this sharp-tongued, self-confident diplomatfinds herself in the middle of abitter feud in which she is largely

a bystander.“Susan had a reputation, fairly

or not, as someone who could runa little hot and shoot from thehip,” said John Norris, a foreign-policy expert at the Center forAmerican Progress. “If someonehad told me that the biggestknock on her was going to be thatshe too slavishly followed the

Diplomat on the Rise, Suddenly in Turbulence

MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

At the United Nations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clin-ton and Susan E. Rice, Mrs. Clinton’s possible successor.


By DAVID STREITFELD

ROSEDALE, Md. — Shawnand Stephanie Grimes spentmuch of the last two years pursu-ing their dream of doing researchand development for Apple, theworld’s most successful corpora-tion.

But they did not actually havejobs at Apple. It was freelancework that came with nothing inthe way of a regular income,health insurance or retirementplan. Instead, the Grimeses triedto prepare by willingly, even ea-gerly, throwing overboard justabout everything they could.

They sold one of their cars,gave some possessions to rela-tives and sold others in a yardsale, rented out their six-bed-room house and stayed with fam-ily for a while. They even cashedin Mr. Grimes’s 401(k).

“We didn’t lose any sleep overit,” said Mr. Grimes, 32. “I’ll re-tire when I die.”

The couple’s chosen field is sonew it did not even exist a fewyears ago: writing software ap-plications for mobile devices likethe iPhone or iPad. Even as un-employment remained stubborn-ly high and the economy strug-gled to emerge from the reces-

sion’s shadow, the ranks of com-puter software engineers, includ-ing app writers, increased nearly8 percent in 2010 to more than amillion, according to the latestavailable government data forthat category. These software en-gineers now outnumber farmersand have almost caught up withlawyers.

Much as the Web set off thedot-com boom 15 years ago, apps

As Boom Lures App Creators,Tough Part Is Making a Living


THE iECONOMY

Writing the Software

By CHARLES McGRATH

On the computer in PhilipRoth’s Upper West Side apart-ment these days is a Post-it notethat reads, “The struggle withwriting is over.” It’s a reminder tohimself that Mr. Roth, who will be80 in March and who has enjoyed

one of the longest and most cele-brated careers in American let-ters, has retired from writing fic-tion — 31 books since he startedin 1959. “I look at that note everymorning,” he said the other day,“and it gives me such strength.”

To his friends the notion of Mr.Roth not writing is like Mr. Roth

not breathing. It sometimesseemed as if writing were all hedid. He worked alone for weeksat a time at his house in Connecti-cut, reporting every morning to anearby studio where he wrotestanding up, and often going backthere in the evening. At an agewhen most novelists slow down,he got a second wind and wrotesome of his best books: “Sab-bath’s Theater,” “American Pas-toral,” “The Human Stain” and“The Plot Against America.” Wellinto his 70s, the books, thoughshorter, came uninterruptedly,practically one a year.

But over the course of a three-hour interview — his last, he said— Mr. Roth seemed cheerful, re-laxed and at peace with himselfand his decision, which was firstannounced last month in theFrench magazine Les InRocks.He joked and reminisced, talkedabout writers and writing, andlooked back at his career with ap-parent satisfaction and few re-grets. Last spring he appointedBlake Bailey as his biographer

Goodbye, Frustration: Pen Put Aside, Roth Talks

FRED R. CONRAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Philip Roth’s daily reminder: “The struggle with writing is over.” Continued on Page 4


The Middle East gives Presi-dent Obama’s “light footprint”strategy its biggest test. Page 8.

A Foreign Policy Challenge

Mapping deaths in the regioncaused by the storm. Page 29.

A Hurricane’s Human Toll

Today, intervals of clouds and sun-shine, seasonably cool, high 52.Tonight, partly cloudy, low 41.Monday, partly sunny, high 52.Weather map is on Page 12.

$6 beyond the greater New York metropolitan area. $5.00

Late Edition

No. 1 Oregon lost to Stanford, 17-14, andNo. 2 Kansas State was routed by Bay-lor, 52-24. The biggest winner may havebeen No. 3 Notre Dame. PAGE 1

SPORTS SUNDAY

A Wild Day in College Football

C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,001,Bs-BK,E3

ROSEDALE, Md.

ShAwn and Stephanie Grimes spent much of the last two years pursuing their dream of doing research and development for

Apple, the world’s most successful corporation.But they did not actually have jobs at Apple.

It was freelance work that came with nothing in the way of a regular income, health insurance or

retirement plan. Instead, the Grimeses tried to prepare by willingly, even

eagerly, throwing overboard just about every-thing they could.

They sold one of their cars, gave some pos-sessions to relatives and sold others in a yard sale, rented out their six-bedroom house and stayed with family for a while. They even cashed in Mr. Grimes’s 401(k).

“we didn’t lose any sleep over it,” said Mr. Grimes, 32. “I’ll retire when I die.”

The couple’s chosen field is so new it did not even exist a few years ago: writing software applications for mobile devices like the iPhone or iPad. Even as unemployment remained stubbornly high and the economy struggled to emerge from the recession’s shadow, the ranks of computer software engineers, including app writers, increased nearly 8 percent in 2010 to more than a million, according to the latest avail-able government data for that category. These software engineers now outnumber farmers and have almost caught up with lawyers.

Much as the web set off the dot-com boom 15 years ago, apps have inspired a new class of entrepreneurs. These innovators have turned cellphones and tablets into tools for discovering,

organizing and controlling the world, spawning a multibillion-dollar industry virtually over-night. The iPhone and iPad have about 700,000 apps, from Instagram to Angry Birds.

Yet with the American economy yielding few good opportunities in recent years, there is debate about how real, and lasting, the rise in app employment might be.

Despite the rumors of hordes of hip pro-grammers starting million-dollar businesses from their kitchen tables, only a small minority of developers actually make a living by creating their own apps, according to surveys and ex-perts. The Grimeses began their venture with high hopes, but their apps, most of them for tod-dlers, did not come quickly enough or sell fast enough.

And programming is not a skill that just anyone can learn. while people already em-ployed in tech jobs have added app writing to their résumés, the profession offers few options to most unemployed, underemployed and dis-couraged workers.

One success story is Ethan nicholas, who earned more than $1 million in 2009 after writ-ing a game for the iPhone. But he says the app writing world has experienced tectonic shifts since then.

“Can someone drop everything and start writing apps? Sure,” said Mr. nicholas, 34, who quit his job to write apps after iShoot, an artillery game, became a sensation. “Can they start writing good apps? not often, no. I got lucky with iShoot, because back then a decent app could still be successful. But competition is fierce nowadays, and decent isn’t good enough.”

The boom in apps comes as economists are debating the changing nature of work, which

By DAVID STREITFELD











a Cease-Fire




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INTERNATIONAL 5-14



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By MARK LANDLER












By DAVID STREITFELD










THE iECONOMY


By CHARLES McGRATH
















Late Edition


SPORTS SUNDAY


C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,001,Bs-BK,E3











a Cease-Fire




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By MARK LANDLER












By DAVID STREITFELD










THE iECONOMY


By CHARLES McGRATH
















Late Edition


SPORTS SUNDAY


C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,001,Bs-BK,E3

technology is reshaping at an accelerating speed. The up-heaval, in some ways echoing the mechanization of agricul-ture a century ago, began its latest turbulent phase with the migration of tech manu-facturing to places like China. now service and even white-collar jobs, like file clerks and data entry specialists or office support staff and mechanical drafters, are disappearing.

“Technology is always de-stroying jobs and always cre-ating jobs, but in recent years the destruction has been hap-pening faster than the cre-ation,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the M.I.T. Center for Digital Business.

Still, the digital transition is creating enormous wealth and opportunity. Four of the most valuable American com-panies — Apple, Google, Mi-crosoft and I.B.M. — are root-ed in technology. And it was Apple, more than any other company, that set off the app revolution with the iPhone and iPad. Since Apple un-leashed the world’s freelance coders to build applications four years ago, it has paid them more than $6.5 billion in royalties.

Last year, federal statisticians changed the title and the exact composition of a jobs subcat-egory to reflect the new prominence of apps. And the tech industry has begun making claims about how apps are contributing to the broader economy.

A study commissioned by the tech advocacy group Technet found that the “app economy” — including Apple, Facebook, Google’s Android and other app platforms — was responsible, di-rectly and indirectly, for 466,000 jobs. The study used a methodology that searched online help-wanted ads.

Using the same methodology, Apple said this month that its app business had generated

291,250 jobs for the American economy, as varied as devel-opers and U.P.S. drivers. That number rose 39 percent in less than a year. During that time, the number of United States developers paying the $99 annual fee to register with Apple rose 10 percent to 275,000. Some of these regis-tered developers have other full-time jobs and write apps in their spare time.

Apple has become in-creasingly assertive in pro-moting the economic benefits of apps as its own wealth and prominence have grown and its employment and other business practices have come under scrutiny. The company issued a statement for this ar-ticle saying it was “incredibly proud of the opportunities the App Store gives developers of all sizes,” but declined to an-swer questions.

At the company’s annual meeting this spring, the chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, noted that just a few years ago “mobile app” wasn’t even in people’s vocabulary. “now there’s this enormous, entire-ly new job segment that didn’t

exist before,” he said. “Apple has become a jobs platform.”

Michael Mandel, the economist who con-ducted the Technet study, said it was problem-atic to slice the jobs data as Apple had done. “The guy who writes an Apple app one day will write an Android app the next day,” he said. “You can’t add up all the numbers from every study to get the total number of jobs.”

For many of the developers not working at traditional companies, moreover, “job” is a mis-nomer. Streaming Color Studios, a game devel-oper, did a survey of game makers late last year. The 252 respondents, while not a scientifically valid sample and restricted to one segment of the app market, indicated what many people had suspected: the app world is an ecology

22 Ø N NATIONALTHE NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012

have inspired a new class of entrepre-neurs. These innovators have turnedcellphones and tablets into tools for dis-covering, organizing and controlling theworld, spawning a multibillion-dollar in-dustry virtually overnight. The iPhoneand iPad have about 700,000 apps, fromInstagram to Angry Birds.

Yet with the American economyyielding few good opportunities in re-cent years, there is debate about howreal, and lasting, the rise in app em-ployment might be.

Despite the rumors of hordes of hipprogrammers starting million-dollarbusinesses from their kitchen tables,only a small minority of developers ac-tually make a living by creating theirown apps, according to surveys and ex-perts. The Grimeses began their ven-ture with high hopes, but their apps,most of them for toddlers, did not comequickly enough or sell fast enough.

And programming is not a skill thatjust anyone can learn. While people al-ready employed in tech jobs have addedapp writing to their résumés, the profes-sion offers few options to most unem-ployed, underemployed and discour-aged workers.

One success story is Ethan Nicholas,who earned more than $1 million in 2009after writing a game for the iPhone. Buthe says the app writing world has expe-rienced tectonic shifts since then.

“Can someone drop everything andstart writing apps? Sure,” said Mr.Nicholas, 34, who quit his job to writeapps after iShoot, an artillery game, be-came a sensation. “Can they start writ-ing good apps? Not often, no. I got luckywith iShoot, because back then a decentapp could still be successful. But compe-tition is fierce nowadays, and decentisn’t good enough.”

The boom in apps comes as econo-mists are debating the changing natureof work, which technology is reshapingat an accelerating speed. The upheaval,in some ways echoing the mechaniza-tion of agriculture a century ago, beganits latest turbulent phase with the mi-gration of tech manufacturing to placeslike China. Now service and even white-collar jobs, like file clerks and data en-try specialists or office support staff andmechanical drafters, are disappearing.

“Technology is always destroyingjobs and always creating jobs, but in re-cent years the destruction has beenhappening faster than the creation,”said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economistand director of the M.I.T. Center forDigital Business.

Still, the digital transition is creatingenormous wealth and opportunity. Fourof the most valuable American compa-nies — Apple, Google, Microsoft andI.B.M. — are rooted in technology. Andit was Apple, more than any other com-pany, that set off the app revolution withthe iPhone and iPad. Since Apple un-leashed the world’s freelance coders tobuild applications four years ago, it haspaid them more than $6.5 billion inroyalties.

Last year, federal statisticianschanged the title and the exact composi-tion of a jobs subcategory to reflect thenew prominence of apps. And the techindustry has begun making claimsabout how apps are contributing to thebroader economy.

A study commissioned by the tech ad-vocacy group TechNet found that the“app economy” — including Apple,Facebook, Google’s Android and otherapp platforms — was responsible, di-rectly and indirectly, for 466,000 jobs.The study used a methodology thatsearched online help-wanted ads.

Using the same methodology, Applesaid this month that its app businesshad generated 291,250 jobs for theAmerican economy, as varied as devel-opers and U.P.S. drivers. That numberrose 39 percent in less than a year. Dur-ing that time, the number of UnitedStates developers paying the $99 annualfee to register with Apple rose 10 per-cent to 275,000. Some of these registereddevelopers have other full-time jobs andwrite apps in their spare time.

Apple has become increasingly as-sertive in promoting the economicbenefits of apps as its own wealth andprominence have grown and its em-ployment and other business practiceshave come under scrutiny. The compa-ny issued a statement for this articlesaying it was “incredibly proud of theopportunities the App Store gives devel-opers of all sizes,” but declined to an-

swer questions.At the company’s annual meeting this

spring, the chief executive, Timothy D.Cook, noted that just a few years ago“mobile app” wasn’t even in people’svocabulary. “Now there’s this enor-mous, entirely new job segment thatdidn’t exist before,” he said. “Apple hasbecome a jobs platform.”

Michael Mandel, the economist whoconducted the TechNet study, said itwas problematic to slice the jobs data asApple had done. “The guy who writesan Apple app one day will write an An-droid app the next day,” he said. “Youcan’t add up all the numbers from everystudy to get the total number of jobs.”

For many of the developers not work-ing at traditional companies, moreover,“job” is a misnomer. Streaming ColorStudios, a game developer, did a surveyof game makers late last year. The 252respondents, while not a scientificallyvalid sample and restricted to one seg-ment of the app market, indicated whatmany people had suspected: the appworld is an ecology weighted heavily to-ward a few winners.

A quarter of the respondents saidthey had made less than $200 in lifetimerevenue from Apple. A quarter hadmade more than $30,000, and 4 percenthad made over $1 million.

A few apps have made it extremelybig, including Instagram, the photo-sharing app that was bought by Face-book in April for $1 billion. When appdevelopers dream, they dream of tri-umphs like that.

Most developers, however, maketheir money when someone buys or up-grades their app from Apple’s onlinestore, the only place consumers can buyan iPhone or iPad app.

Apple keeps 30 percent of each appsale. While its job creation report trum-pets the $6.5 billion the company haspaid out in royalties, it does not notethat as much as half of that money goesto developers outside the United States.The pie, while growing rapidly, is small-er than it seems.

“My guess is that very few develop-ers make a living off their own apps,”said Jeff Scott, who runs the Apple appreview site 148Apps.com and closelytracks developments in the field.

The Struggling EntrepreneurLike many computer experts, Shawn

Grimes started experimenting withapps almost as soon as Apple opened itsdoors for the iPhone. He wrote an In-ternet security program as well as a toolfor studio photographers to manageportrait sessions. Those amateur appspulled in more than $5,000 from Apple.

Late last year, Mr. Grimes was laid offas a computer security specialist byLegg Mason, the Baltimore financialfirm. The dismissal shook his confi-dence. “I worked really hard,” he said.“I did my best. But ultimately my ca-reer was not in my hands.”

The layoff, a result of Legg Mason’sdecision to eliminate the jobs of 300 techsupport workers, had been in the worksfor more than a year, which gave Mr.Grimes and his wife, Stephanie, plentyof time to contemplate their future.

They have strong family roots in theBaltimore area but would have movedfor a position with a Silicon Valley giant.

Google, which receives two millionapplications a year, interviewed Mr.Grimes, but he did not make it past thepreliminary stages.

With direct employment out of reach,he decided to work independently bywriting apps. He had no illusion that hewas likely to become rich. Mostly, hehoped to find satisfying work that paidenough to provide a middle-class livingand some shelter from a shifting econ-omy.

But with hundreds of new apps intro-duced every day in Apple’s store, thefield is overcrowded — something theGrimeses learned quickly and painfully.

Ms. Grimes, 32, quit her job teachingkindergartners to join the couple’s newventure, Campfire Apps. They down-sized to a two-bedroom apartment. “Weeither succeed and it’s awesome, or wefail and it was awesome while it lasted,”she said.

They worked steadily on apps that re-volved around children. Henry’s SmartHeadlamp was a learning game for pre-schoolers, a hunt for hidden objects thatthe Grimeses hoped iPhone-wieldingparents would think was worth $2 for amoment of distraction. A free versioncalled Henry’s Spooky Headlamp got

5,409 downloads during Halloween 2011.The couple aimed for one new app a

month, but progress was slow and saleswere slower. In March, with the appsbringing in only about $20 a day, theycashed in Mr. Grimes’s 401(k), whichyielded $30,000 after taxes and penal-ties. They had already spent the sever-ance from his job at Legg Mason.

One thing they never scrimped onwas technology, especially Apple tech-nology. At one point they owned a 24-inch iMac, a Mac Mini, a 24-inch cinemadisplay screen, two 13-inch MacBookAirs, a 15-inch MacBook Pro, two iPad2s, two Apple TVs, two iPhone 4s and aniPhone 3GS. “We justify buying newmodels by saying we need them to testout the apps,” Mr. Grimes said.

Soon, though, it got to the point whereMr. Grimes needed to take on freelancework, which brought in crucial incomebut took time away from CampfireApps. By the beginning of summer,troubled by several persistent healthcare issues, he surrendered to the needfor a full-time job.

Mr. Grimes now works as an app de-veloper for ELC Technologies, an Ore-gon company that allowed him to stayin Baltimore. Ms. Grimes is still work-ing on Campfire Apps.

While Mr. Grimes was angry at LeggMason for laying him off, Apple deliv-

ered little — but it also made no prom-ises. “People used to expect companiesto take care of them,” he said. “Nowyou’re in charge of your own destiny, forbetter or worse.”

The Grimeses’ quest cost them morethan $200,000 in lost income and sav-ings. So far this year, their eight appshave earned $4,964. When the newestiPhone came out at the end of Septem-ber, the couple immediately bought two.

Success Beyond DreamsEthan Nicholas was a Sun Microsys-

tems programmer, a games enthusiastand a father of two very young boys,and he needed some extra cash. So inlate 2008 he wrote an artillery game thatcould be played on the iPhone, whichwas still relatively new. There wereabout 11 million in circulation — certain-ly a large number, but nothing like the270 million that have now been sold.

Mr. Nicholas wrote iShoot in sixweeks, in his spare time. It sold 17,000copies at $2.99 each on a single day, Jan.11, 2009. That was a Sunday. On Monday,he quit his job. By March, he had earnedmore than $1 million. “Sheer dumb luckand being in the right place at the righttime,” he said.

Mr. Nicholas and a friend, Brent Mill-er, were inspired to form a company.“We were going to make another mil-lion or two,” said Mr. Miller, 38. Butwhen none of their new games sold likeiShoot, the pair moved in an entirelynew direction. They founded echoBase,a start-up with 14 employees that is de-veloping apps to allow doctors andnurses to view and update medicalrecords across different computer sys-tems. They brought in Mr. Miller’s fa-ther, Rod, a former I.B.M. sales man-ager, as chief executive.

EchoBase has raised about $4 million.Most of that has come from dozens ofsmall investors, but Mr. Nicholas andthe Millers have contributed about $1million. “All of my savings and retire-ment account are gone,” Brent Millersaid. His father took out a second mort-gage. Revenue is now coming in, with3,200 doctors signed up, but the compa-ny is a long way from making a profit.Rod Miller forecast that it would be-come self-sustaining in 2013.

Mr. Nicholas has cautioned his newcolleagues about easy money. “Thetime for that has passed,” he said.

EchoBase markets its service to med-ical records software providers and hos-pitals, whose doctors download the appfree. Apple makes no money here, but itgets a long-term benefit: start-ups thatsucceed will embed the iPad and theiPhone more thoroughly into society.

The company is, in a sense, anotherarm of Apple’s research and develop-ment program. “The applications arewhat sells the hardware,” Rod Millersaid. “Without us, and thousands of oth-ers like us, Apple has limited appeal.”

On one level, it was a strange movefor Apple to open its devices to peoplelike Mr. Grimes, Mr. Nicholas and theMillers. Imagine a violinist’s horror atletting a toddler play with his Stradivar-ius and you would have some idea ofApple’s reluctance to let anyone outsideof its walls fool with any of its technol-ogy. This is a company that sealed bat-teries into its devices so people couldnot replace them.

Apple’s brilliant but mercurial chiefexecutive, Steven P. Jobs, agreed to un-lock the gates of the fledgling iPhoneonly after much internal argument, andhe made sure that Apple would retainstrict oversight of every app. In retro-spect, it might have been the smartestdecision ever made by a company thatprides itself on creating the future.

The App Store opened in July 2008with 500 apps. In an interview, Mr. Jobslaid bare the company’s goal: “Sellmore iPhones.”

And so, thanks in large part to themultitude of apps, it came to pass. MoreiPhones — nearly seven million — weresold in the next three months than inthe entire previous year, and that wasjust the beginning of the ascent.

“Apps changed the iPhone from asimple phone into a mobile computer,”said Mr. Scott of 148Apps.com.

Apple’s financial documents showjust how crucial app inventors are. If thedevelopers stop developing, the compa-ny warned again last month, “custom-ers may choose not to buy the compa-ny’s products.”

So far, there has not been much riskof revolt. Developers have expressedflickers of grumpiness at Apple’s 30 per-cent cut of each app sale. A shadowygroup calling itself the App DeveloperUnion briefly posted a petition onlinethis summer asking for “somethingmore equitable.” Apple declined to com-ment about the union, which disap-peared from the Web as mysteriously asit had arrived.

Mr. Nicholas has the same philosophyabout Apple now as he did when hewrote iShoot. “I’d rather get 70 percentof a large pie than all of a small pie,” hesaid.

As Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living

BÉATRICE DE GÉA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

EchoBase’s Resonate app helps doc-tors manage patient records.

From Page 1

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics THE NEW YORK TIMES

Shoe machine workers

Postal Service clerks

Fabric and apparel pattern makers

Sewing machine operators

Textile cutting machine workers

Telephone operators

Word processors and typists

Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists

Computer programmers

Total, all occupations

Landscaping workers

Application software developers

System software developers

Medical secretaries

Physical therapist assistants

Veterinary technicians

Carpenters’ helpers

Biomedical engineers

Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%

2010 employment,in thousands

Projected changeto 2020

Job Prospects for App WritersApplication software developers rank 72nd out of 749 occupations tracked by the government in terms of job growth to 2020. Here is a range of those job projections, which were made in 2010, just as the apps era was beginning in earnest.

DANIEL ROSENBAUM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Ethan Nicholas, top, made more than $1 million on an artillery app. Above, Shawn and Stephanie Grimes’sefforts cost $200,000 in lost income and savings, but their apps have earned less than $5,000 this year.


The Henry’s Smart Headlamp app isa learning game for preschoolers.


Articles in this series are examiningchallenges posed by increasingly global-ized high-tech industries.

The iEconomy

ONLINE: How to make an app, alongwith previous articles and

multimedia in the series.

nytimes.com/ieconomy

C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2





























































From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2





























































From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2





























































From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2





























































From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




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From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

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Bakers

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Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

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392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

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+40%

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+9%

+2%

–4%

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The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E222 Ø N NATIONALTHE NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012




























































From Page 1







Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



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Medical secretaries





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150

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143,068

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861 +71%

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The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2

weighted heavily toward a few winners.A quarter of the respondents said they had

made less than $200 in lifetime revenue from Apple. A quarter had made more than $30,000, and 4 percent had made over $1 million.

A few apps have made it extremely big, in-cluding Instagram, the photo-sharing app that was bought by Facebook in April for $1 billion. when app developers dream, they dream of tri-umphs like that.

Most developers, however, make their mon-ey when someone buys or upgrades their app from Apple’s online store, the only place con-sumers can buy an iPhone or iPad app.

Apple keeps 30 percent of each app sale. while its job creation report trumpets the $6.5 billion the company has paid out in royalties, it does not note that as much as half of that money goes to developers outside the United States. The pie, while growing rapidly, is smaller than it seems.

“My guess is that very few developers make a living off their own apps,” said Jeff Scott, who runs the Apple app review site 148Apps.com and closely tracks develop-ments in the field.


Grimes started experimenting with apps al-most as soon as Apple opened its doors for the iPhone. he wrote an Internet security program as well as a tool for studio photographers to manage portrait sessions. Those amateur apps pulled in more than $5,000 from Apple.

Late last year, Mr. Grimes was laid off as a computer security specialist by Legg Ma-son, the Baltimore financial firm. The dismissal shook his confidence. “I worked really hard,” he said. “I did my best. But ultimately my career was not in my hands.”

The layoff, a result of Legg Mason’s decision to eliminate the jobs of 300 tech support work-ers, had been in the works for more than a year, which gave Mr. Grimes and his wife, Stephanie, plenty of time to contemplate their future. They have strong family roots in the Baltimore area but would have moved for a position with a Sili-con Valley giant.

Google, which receives two million applica-tions a year, interviewed Mr. Grimes, but he did not make it past the preliminary stages.

with direct employment out of reach, he decided to work independently by writing apps. he had no illusion that he was likely to become rich. Mostly, he hoped to find satisfying work that paid enough to provide a middle-class liv-ing and some shelter from a shifting economy.

But with hundreds of new apps introduced every day in Apple’s store, the field is over-crowded — something the Grimeses learned quickly and painfully.

Ms. Grimes, 32, quit her job teaching kinder-gartners to join the couple’s new venture, Camp-fire Apps. They downsized to a two-bedroom

apartment. “we either succeed and it’s awesome, or we fail and it was awesome while it lasted,” she said.

They worked steadily on apps that revolved around chil-dren. henry’s Smart headlamp was a learning game for pre-schoolers, a hunt for hidden ob-jects that the Grimeses hoped iPhone-wielding parents would

think was worth $2 for a moment of distraction. A free version called henry’s Spooky headlamp got 5,409 downloads during halloween 2011.

The couple aimed for one new app a month, but progress was slow and sales were slower. In March, with the apps bringing in only about $20 a day, they cashed in Mr. Grimes’s 401(k), which yielded $30,000 after taxes and penalties. They had already spent the severance from his job at Legg Mason.

One thing they never scrimped on was tech-nology, especially Apple technology. At one point they owned a 24-inch iMac, a Mac Mini, a 24-inch cinema display screen, two 13-inch MacBook Airs, a 15-inch MacBook Pro, two iPad 2s, two Ap-ple TVs, two iPhone 4s and an iPhone 3GS. “we justify buying new models by saying we need them to test out the apps,” Mr. Grimes said.

Soon, though, it got to the point where Mr. Grimes needed to take on freelance work, which brought in crucial income but took time away from Campfire Apps. By the beginning of sum-mer, troubled by several persistent health care issues, he surrendered to the need for a full-time job.





























































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Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

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+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2

Mr. Grimes now works as an app developer for ELC Technologies, an Oregon company that allowed him to stay in Baltimore. Ms. Grimes is still working on Campfire Apps.

while Mr. Grimes was angry at Legg Ma-son for laying him off, Apple delivered little — but it also made no promises. “People used to expect companies to take care of them,” he said. “now you’re in charge of your own destiny, for better or worse.”

The Grimeses’ quest cost them more than $200,000 in lost income and savings. So far this year, their eight apps have earned $4,964. when the newest iPhone came out at the end of Sep-tember, the couple immediately bought two.

Success Beyond DreamsEthan nicholas was a Sun Microsystems

programmer, a games enthusiast and a father of two very young boys, and he needed some extra cash. So in late 2008 he wrote an artillery game

that could be played on the iPhone, which was still relatively new. There were about 11 million in circulation — certainly a large number, but nothing like the 270 million that have now been sold.

Mr. nicholas wrote iShoot in six weeks, in his spare time. It sold 17,000 copies at $2.99 each on a single day, Jan. 11, 2009. That was a Sunday. On Monday, he quit his job. By March, he had earned more than $1 million. “Sheer dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Mr. nicholas and a friend, Brent Miller, were inspired to form a company. “we were go-ing to make another million or two,” said Mr. Miller, 38. But when none of their new games sold like iShoot, the pair moved in an entirely new direction. They founded echoBase, a start-up with 14 employees that is developing apps to allow doctors and nurses to view and update medical records across different computer sys-





























































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Telephone operators


Fast food cooks

3

66

6

25

15

19

115

530

Bakers

Machinists



Landscaping workers



Medical secretaries





Personal care aides

150

370

363

143,068

1,152

521

392

89

67

80

47

16

861 +71%

+62%

+56%

+52%

+46%

+40%

+32%

+28%

+21%

+14%

+12%

+9%

+2%

–4%

–12%

–17%

–22%

–26%

–36%

–48%

–53%










The iEconomy




C M Y K Nxxx,2012-11-18,A,022,Bs-4C,E2

tems. They brought in Mr. Miller’s father, Rod, a former I.B.M. sales manager, as chief executive.

EchoBase has raised about $4 million. Most of that has come from dozens of small investors, but Mr. nicholas and the Millers have contrib-uted about $1 million. “All of my savings and re-tirement account are gone,” Brent Miller said. his father took out a second mortgage. Revenue is now coming in, with 3,200 doctors signed up, but the company is a long way from making a profit. Rod Miller forecast that it would become self-sustaining in 2013.

Mr. nicholas has cautioned his new col-leagues about easy money. “The time for that has passed,” he said.

EchoBase markets its service to medical re-cords software providers and hospitals, whose doctors download the app free. Apple makes no money here, but it gets a long-term benefit: start-ups that succeed will embed the iPad and the iPhone more thoroughly into society.

The company is, in a sense, another arm of Apple’s research and development program. “The applications are what sells the hardware,” Rod Miller said. “without us, and thousands of others like us, Apple has limited appeal.”

On one level, it was a strange move for Ap-ple to open its devices to people like Mr. Grimes, Mr. nicholas and the Millers. Imagine a violin-ist’s horror at letting a toddler play with his Stradivarius and you would have some idea of Apple’s reluctance to let anyone outside of its walls fool with any of its technology. This is a company that sealed batteries into its devices so people could not replace them.

Apple’s brilliant but mercurial chief execu-

tive, Steven P. Jobs, agreed to unlock the gates of the fledgling iPhone only after much internal argument, and he made sure that Apple would retain strict oversight of every app. In retro-spect, it might have been the smartest decision ever made by a company that prides itself on creating the future.

The App Store opened in July 2008 with 500 apps. In an interview, Mr. Jobs laid bare the company’s goal: “Sell more iPhones.”

And so, thanks in large part to the multitude of apps, it came to pass. More iPhones — near-ly seven million — were sold in the next three months than in the entire previous year, and that was just the beginning of the ascent.

“Apps changed the iPhone from a simple phone into a mobile computer,” said Mr. Scott of 148Apps.com.

Apple’s financial documents show just how crucial app inventors are. If the developers stop developing, the company warned again last month, “customers may choose not to buy the company’s products.”

So far, there has not been much risk of re-volt. Developers have expressed flickers of grumpiness at Apple’s 30 percent cut of each app sale. A shadowy group calling itself the App Developer Union briefly posted a petition on-line this summer asking for “something more equitable.” Apple declined to comment about the union, which disappeared from the web as mysteriously as it had arrived.

Mr. nicholas has the same philosophy about Apple now as he did when he wrote iShoot. “I’d rather get 70 percent of a large pie than all of a small pie,” he said. n

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By DAVID STREITFELD CITY BULLDOZERS AFTER THE STORM, · 2020-04-01 · CITY BULLDOZERS Clearing of Homes Will Alter Neighborhoods Continued on Page 27 By MARK LANDLER WASHINGTON —