Apple lays off about 100 services employees across Apple Books, News
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.
Apple Books and other Apple services hit with layoffs
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.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Amazon kindle in that respect is much easier.
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.
How rare are layoffs now? Well, when COVID hit, not one retail employee was laid off even though the stores were closed for three months. In fact, seasonal workers whose contracts were ending in March were offered regular part time positions, so as to not (as one of my store leaders put it) to "toss people over a cliff." Then, when stores did reopen with very limited services, staff, and hours, over 25,000 of us (myself included) went to work at home over the phone or chat.
And even more recently, where the headcount in some stores got too high, again no one was laid off, headcount gets reduced by attrition. People were able to move to other stores if possible, or positions just weren't filled when someone left. (I don't think my Expert spot has been filled since I left five months ago.).
The news apps we have for Stuff and 1News are pathetic to the point I just use the web versions.