Heaptalk, Jakarta — Apple announced a new wave of layoffs, affecting around 100 employees in the company’s digital services group.
The layoffs included several engineering roles, and the most significant cuts impacted the team responsible for the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore. The job-cutting determination also affected another division, the service teams that run Apple News.
According to the company’s spokesperson, the Apple Books business unit is no longer one of the highest priorities among its services lineup. Nevertheless, the Books app is still expected to get new features over time. As for Apple News, the layoffs aren’t a sign that it’s becoming less of a focus.
The company has previously reorganized teams amid shifting business priorities, including focusing on artificial intelligence (AI). Earlier this year, it suspended work on its Vision-class headset and closed a project to design and develop displays for its smartwatch. The turmoil was exacerbated amid challenges in China, Apple’s third market, where product sales fell about 6.5% last quarter.
As the company reported, the firm’s fiscal 2024 second quarter ended March 30, 2024. The company posted quarterly revenue of US$90.8 billion, down 4% YoY, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of US$1.53. Furthermore, in the last trading period, Apple’s shares ended up 0.37%, up to US$228. Throughout 2024 (YTD), Apple recorded a price increase of 22.8%.
Last year, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook claimed that layoffs were relatively rare. However, he considered this job-cutting a previous resort kind of thing.
“You can never say never. We aim to manage costs in other ways to the degree we can,” Cook said at the time,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
This tech company also cut about 600 employees after canceling car projects in April and smartwatch display projects in February – March. Around 2,000 people working on the self-driving electric car project moved to Apple’s AI division.
