Apple Announces Job Cuts in Its Digital Services Group

Apple has reportedly moved forward with job cuts of its own in 2024, and these cuts have been rumored to have affected around 100 workers. The Apple job reduction plans were brought to light by Bloomberg, but the company has not confirmed the validity of the story or the reasoning behind its decision to cut down on these particular teams. The layoffs have primarily affected the digital service groups, which refer to those in charge of Apple’s various proprietary platforms. 

Apple services job cuts have not been associated with any change in business direction or the introduction of new technology, which leaves us with many unanswered questions on what prompted this decision.

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Apple Job Cuts in 2024—Around 100 Employees Affected

Apple’s job reduction plans are said to have been centered around the digital service groups, with the teams in charge of the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore at the center of the cuts. Roles within other service teams like Apple News have also likely been affected. Over 100 employees have been let go, which doesn’t feel as significant when compared to the size of the organization but does impact a lot of lives and livelihoods all the same. The company had around 161,000 full-time employees back in September 2023 and the numbers are likely to remain vastly unchanged. 

The changing regulatory landscape, particularly in the EU, has brought a lot of unrest to the company, but there is no evidence of it having affected the Apple Bookstore so far. In the previous quarterly earnings report, the services segment of the company’s business had represented 28% of the revenue, but there was no evidence to suggest that there were issues with any element of the services that might warrant Apple turning towards job cuts. 

TechCrunch noted that the major revenue from the service section likely came from in-app purchases and subscriptions to the App Store, but there is no mention of the Apple Books app among these reports. 

Apple’s Services Job Cuts Not the First Cuts This Year

Apple’s job reduction plans are unsurprising in this era of frequent layoffs but the Cupertino company is typically quite adept at avoiding job cuts. Compared to the scale at which other companies of a similar size—for example, Microsoft and Google—have been cutting jobs, Apple has done quite well to keep it to a minimum, although it has not been able to avoid cuts entirely.

The current Apple Books layoffs were preceded by cuts in the production teams earlier this year. Apple shut shop on an EV car project that it had been working on for quite a while, and the team in charge of the project had to be let go as there were no other fitting roles for them at the company. 

Apple’s job cuts also included those affected by the cancellation of the smartwatch display the team had been working on. The cancellation of these two projects resulted in approximately 600 job cuts at Apple.

The iPhone maker is all set to launch its next smartphone and its advanced Apple Intelligence AI features, in the coming month. It is unlikely that Apple is drawing away its resources for these projects, but perhaps the company will reassert its focus on services that are more central to the Apple business model currently. 

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