Apps Economy Driving the Larger U.S. Economy, Say Speakers at Stevens Institute Event

"The U.S. has entered the early stages of a communications-driven boom,” Mandel said. “We're getting genuine economic growth but it looks very different than any time in the past. Today growth is measured in apps downloaded and gigabytes used, rather than cars sold and homes constructed.”

The apps economy is “about new ways that people and businesses can communicate, act, buy, look,” Mandel said. “Just like every other innovation boom in the past the app economy is creating jobs. … The people who write apps, the people who market them, the people who run the wireless networks and the people who repair the equipment.” The apps economy is “an entirely new eco-system coming into being, one that only has an upside,” he said. “What does this mean for New Jersey?” he asked. “New Jersey and Bell Labs were once the hub of the communications universe. It can happen again.” Mandel said research he will publish soon ranks New Jersey among the top states in the country in terms of jobs created by the apps economy, behind only such traditional high-tech powers as California, Washington and Massachusetts. “This is a great sign for the future,” he said.

Genachowski said “next-generation networks” are expected to add $151 billion to the U.S. economy and 770,000 new American jobs in the next four years. The FCC understands the importance of the new app economy, he said. “That’s why we've been pushing universal broadband adoption, because we need both universal deployment and universal adoption,” he said. “Right now, and this is a surprise to people, a third of our population doesn’t have broadband at home. They can technically get it but they don’t subscribe.”

Lautenberg said he will soon introduce the America Innovates Act, which would create an American Innovation Bank to “leverage federal investments in science into new products, companies and jobs.” The proposed legislation also would fund industry training for graduate students in science and expand existing fellowship programs so students can perform research working with industry, Lautenberg said. It also would support the development of new academic curricula to train science graduate students for careers in industry. Lautenberg and Genachowski also unveiled a New Jersey Apps Challenge, a competition at various universities in the state to create the best mobile app. The contest is open to students, faculty and recent alumni affiliated with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers and Stevens.

"From Thomas Edison to Albert Einstein to Bell Labs, New Jersey has long been the birthplace of new ideas that have transformed our economy and our world,” Lautenberg said. “By bringing the brightest minds in business and academia together, we can help ensure that New Jersey continues to build on its rich tradition of innovation."

Genachowski credited the FCC’s net neutrality rules, approved in late 2010, with helping speed the expansion of the Internet economy. “In 2011, overall investment in network infrastructure was up 24 percent from 2010,” he said. “Internet start-ups attracted $7 billion in venture capital in 2011, almost double the 2009 level and the most since 2001.” Getting more spectrum in play for broadband is also critical, he said. “Mobile apps that we're using everyday on our smartphones and our tablets … rely on our spectrum,” he said.