Apple has taken the rare step of laying off about 100 people from its digital services division, including the Apple News and Apple Books apps, as the iPhone maker realigns its priorities to focus more on artificial intelligence. according to a report.
Affected employees, including several engineers, were informed of the decision on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News.
Apple Books, which allows users to buy and download e-books and audiobooks, is considered a lower priority at the Cupertino, California-based tech giant, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
The layoffs also affected staff at Apple News, the news aggregator app that curates articles from various publishers into a single, personalized feed — though sources told Bloomberg that the service remains a priority for the company.
Affected workers were told they have 60 days to find another position within the company before being terminated.
Apple declined to comment on the Bloomberg News report.
The company had approximately 161,000 full-time equivalent employees as of September 30, 2023, according to its latest annual report.
Apple, the world’s richest company with a market cap of $3.47 trillion, has rarely had layoffs in the past. This year, however, there have been at least four rounds of job cuts.
In the spring, Apple cut hundreds of jobs after shutting down its self-driving car project.
It previously suspended work on its upcoming high-end Vision headphones and shut down a project to design and develop its own smartwatch displays earlier this year, according to media reports.
Other tech companies have laid off workers at a far greater rate than Apple.
Since the beginning of the year, tech companies worldwide have cut more than 134,000 jobs, according to the tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
LinkedIn laid off 660 employees while Intel laid off more than 15,000 workers.
Apple emerged from a prolonged sales slump in its most recent quarter as the trendsetting company prepares to tap into the artificial intelligence craze with an arsenal of new technology expected to meet demand for its next iPhone.
Fiscal third-quarter results announced earlier this month covered an April-June period that is typically a slow stretch for Apple as its loyal customer base waits for the next version of the iPhone that is traditionally revealed just after Labor Day.
However, Apple increased its sales from a year ago – a welcome change of fortunes after five consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue declines.
By postal wire
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