Wesley Hilliard
A priority shift in Apple Services has led to about 100 layoffs across a few teams, with the biggest hitting Apple Books — though the app isn't going anywhere.
Layoffs at Apple are rare, as the company even avoided the mass layoffs other tech companies had post COVID. However, priority shifts can lead to redundancies or other changes that lead to people being let go.
According to a report from Bloomberg, people familiar with the layoffs say Apple Books was primarily affected, as well as Apple News. The layoffs aren't an indication that these services are going anywhere, and new features are planned for both.
However, Apple is shifting strategies and doesn't see Apple Books as a priority. Apple News layoffs are somewhat surprising, given that division is one of the few places Apple gets advertising revenue.
There haven't been many layoffs in 2024. The most significant occurred with the dissolution of the Apple Car project in April, which resulted in 600 employees being laid off.
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7 Comments
Shame I use books a lot but find searching for titles hard to do and purchase.
Amazon kindle in that respect is much easier.
Wrong direction.
ive been wantin/needing Apple Books to make significant improvements.
1. show all the folders a book is collected in
2. search for books available often doesn’t find those books.
"Layoffs at Apple are rare"!? Must be a new thing. I can remember an Apple where hire&fire was the norm. People got literally celebrated in the comm meeting for their excellent work, only to be layed off a week later etc. That was quite normal in the 00's at least.
What gets me is it’s 2024 and Apple News still isn’t available in New Zealand.
The news apps we have for Stuff and 1News are pathetic to the point I just use the web versions.