PORTLAND- If you have a smart phone, what you may not know is, it could have been developed right here in Oregon.

The state is near the top in the country of 'App intensity,' a measure in how many app-related jobs are in Oregon, compared with the number of total jobs.

The top five App Intense states are:

  1. Washington
  2. California
  3. Massachusetts
  4. Oregon
  5. Georgia

A new report out by CTIA - The Wireless Association says the app economy has created 519,000 jobs nationwide, including 10,800 in Oregon. This generates $526 million for the state economy.

Large and small companies are producing a variety of applications for web and mobile. One of the city's largest is Night and Day Studios, a producer of educational children's games.

We have developed this marketing side of our company that has allowed us to release an app and then get featured by Apple, which helps sales and we'll push up into the top of the rankings, explained Jaime Gennero, Vice President of Production for Night and Day Studios.

The app community in Oregon also supports one another.

The environment, sort of creates that ecosystem for people who are creative, who can do the work and then those companies get formed and they grow and then they bring in more talent because the jobs are there, said Andy Rosin, CEO of Selfpubd.

Upstart Labs in Northwest Portland helps develop the tech industry by offering funding and mentoring to bring raw ideas to the marketplace.

There are about one billion apps currently in the marketplace. The challenge, experts say, is to get discovered in order to turn an idea into a viable business.

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