Tech in general has been overhiring the past decade, in particular big tech. It's a market adjustment that had to happen sooner or later.
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Apple Lays Off Around 100 Services Staff Across Apple Books and News
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We'll see, but Apple never sticks to anything that does not make a lot of money.
There are better booksellers. There are better (and cheaper) news aggregators.
Apple should do what they do best, laser-focus on their core competencies and leverage them for maximum profit. News and Books are not in that core. Music has always been. Health, since the introduction of the Apple watch is now a core competency, and serves to drive sales of the watch.
Apple should do what they do best, laser-focus on their core competencies and leverage them for maximum profit. News and Books are not in that core. Music has always been. Health, since the introduction of the Apple watch is now a core competency, and serves to drive sales of the watch.
they actually had personnel in these depts?
Apple abandoned this area when it be4came clear that it wasn’t an easy cash grab.
Apple abandoned this area when it be4came clear that it wasn’t an easy cash grab.
I love my Apple news and spend hours on it every day it’s the best new site available everything is curated on one app please don’t mess with my Apple news app
As part of a "shift in priorities," Apple has made cuts to its workforce across senior VP Eddy Cue's Services division, Bloomberg reports. Employees impacted by the cuts were reportedly given a 60-day window to secure another position within Apple before their termination becomes effective.
The scope of the layoffs extended beyond a single team, with some employees working across multiple departments feeling the ripple effects of Apple's apparent cost-optimization effort. The layoffs primarily affected the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore teams, but also impacted the Apple News team, marking the fourth round of staff reductions for the company in 2024.
According to the report, the layoffs signal that Apple Books has become less of a priority for the company, which doesn't see it as a major part of its services lineup. However, the Books app is still expected to get new features over time. As for Apple News, the layoffs were said to be an indication that it is less of a focus for Apple.
The Services division has been a key growth driver for the company in recent years. Services now account for over 22% of Apple's sales, a significant increase from less than 10% a decade ago.
The importance of the Services segment has been particularly evident during periods of slower device sales, helping to bolster Apple's financial performance. However, this latest move suggests that even high-performing divisions are not immune to restructuring efforts.
These layoffs follow earlier staff reductions at Apple this year, including the closure of its ambitious self-driving car project and the shutdown of a microLED display initiative. The company also dismantled a team based in San Diego.
Apple's approach to layoffs has been more measured compared to some of its Silicon Valley counterparts. Cisco Systems has announced plans to reduce its headcount by approximately 7%, while Intel is set to eliminate over 15% of its workforce. These more extensive cuts at other tech firms are largely attributed to slowing growth and a shift in focus towards AI.
Article Link: Apple Lays Off Around 100 Services Staff Across Apple Books and News
There are alternative operating systems you can use. Maybe consider getting a Pixel 9.
I disagree that there is a better news curator than Apple news plus you get all the magazine subscriptions and you can pick any subject to get news curated. Cannot be beaten at any price and I don’t believe less than $15 is very expensive
Kindle Paperwhite is a nearly perfect reader. I wish Apple would -- for the sake of reading -- create something that competes with it and the Kindle format with an eInk product. Occasionally an ebook I have checked out from the Library (a great ebook resource) will be another format that I have to read on my iPad using Libbyapp or something like it. For reading the eInk display with the adjustable lcd lights is so, so superior to an iPad display. Plus battery life -- again Kindle slays an iPad. Guess this indicates Apple will never consider something like an eInk reader.
It put a SOUR taste in my mouth when iOS 17 or whatever we're currently on, took the full book covers in your Currently Reading, and made them smaller rectangular tiles, and giving the space to larger, full cover, books for you to purchase. If I purchase and begin reading those, they'll be made smaller to shill the next book. Tacky.
ibooks is a solid way to sync pirated ebooks and pdfs across devices
baffling that society is so comfortable owning nothing and paying handsomely for the privilege
baffling that society is so comfortable owning nothing and paying handsomely for the privilege
"Timmy does not understand anything that does not generate $$$ today."
Oh, another angry "Apple has too much money and has become too GREEDY since Tim Cook took over!!!!!!"
Okay, sure.
Apple Books should be an amazing destination with tools to create engaging interactive experiences. Ho hum.
Tens of millions of us will be out of work if AI is every allowed to get a foot in the door.
Tens of millions of people lost their job's when company owners started to replace humans with robotic machines. Take Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon, he almost jumps with glee when he talks about his warehouses being nearly fully automated. Never a thought of the thousands of human employees he fired.
There will be a societal shift when AI becomes the norm because company bosses will fire humans and replace them with AI. Where are people going to get jobs from? They need a job to help pay the rent/mortgage, food, clothing. Are governments around the world going to give it all out freely when AI takes everyone's job away and there is very very few jobs left for the ten's of millions of humans that will be unemployed.
I bet tech CEO's do not give it a thought at the human suffering they will cause when they introduce AI into their companies. Who need's thousands of human employees to write the latest version of windows os or mac os when you can just get one AI bot to do it for them (eventually).
Whilst for many areas in life AI is still in it's infancy, there are already AI bots creating art work, making music, writing books, narrating video's, writing jokes, writing movies scripts, designing buildings, detecting medical problems and the list goes on.
Just think of the money Tim Cook could save if one AI bot could code the next version of Mac OS or iOS. Do you honestly think he is going to give a &&&& about the coders that would lose their jobs. Hell no. Why because as CEO his duty is to the shareholders, not the company employees.
AI will not be your friend that's for sure.
Tens of millions of people lost their job's when company owners started to replace humans with robotic machines. Take Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon, he almost jumps with glee when he talks about his warehouses being nearly fully automated. Never a thought of the thousands of human employees he fired.
There will be a societal shift when AI becomes the norm because company bosses will fire humans and replace them with AI. Where are people going to get jobs from? They need a job to help pay the rent/mortgage, food, clothing. Are governments around the world going to give it all out freely when AI takes everyone's job away and there is very very few jobs left for the ten's of millions of humans that will be unemployed.
I bet tech CEO's do not give it a thought at the human suffering they will cause when they introduce AI into their companies. Who need's thousands of human employees to write the latest version of windows os or mac os when you can just get one AI bot to do it for them (eventually).
Whilst for many areas in life AI is still in it's infancy, there are already AI bots creating art work, making music, writing books, narrating video's, writing jokes, writing movies scripts, designing buildings, detecting medical problems and the list goes on.
Just think of the money Tim Cook could save if one AI bot could code the next version of Mac OS or iOS. Do you honestly think he is going to give a &&&& about the coders that would lose their jobs. Hell no. Why because as CEO his duty is to the shareholders, not the company employees.
AI will not be your friend that's for sure.
Absolutely love my Nook 7.8" for reading
Granted, I've rooted it and installed KOReader
Granted, I've rooted it and installed KOReader
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Apple services have been lacking because Apple is too obsessed with the iPhone honestly now as a company
From 2019 to 2023 tech companies were hiring like crazy to meet consumer demand. Once the pandemic ended they had to adjust by cutting those jobs back and pouring resources into AI. Apple is just following suit.
Apple's antitrust violation in the eBooks market in 2012 was exactly because Apple wanted to avoid having to compete over price. Apple wanted a guaranteed 30% margin from the get-go without the ability from competitors to undercut it.
Once that antitrust collusion was quashed, Apple likely had no interest in winning market share and high profits in the eBooks market "the hard way" and Books languished as result.
Note that for the antitrust violations mentioned Steve Jobs was still involved, so it's not even a "Tim Cook" issue: I think it's more Apple's general policy to target high profit margins from the get-go or at least in the very short term and not wanting to sacrifice those profit margins to "catch up" to competitors.
Not all industries track economic conditions in the same fashion.
Healthcare will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. An aging population coupled with an increasing number of people of training age having no interest in making the long-term commitments and efforts to enter the field mean there will be a shortage of people to do this work for a long time.
This is particularly true in protective fields as well. People simply don't want to join the military or work in law enforcement when better opportunities exist. Particularly opportunities that won't more likely than not get you sent to a war zone, or vilified by half the population you're seeking to protect.
These are still people who are seeking the best opportunity for themselves and their families. Pay is only but a single factor.
To get an idea of where the economy is going, tech is a good place to look as far as a leading indicator. It's tough to parse out a few hundred here and a few hundred there as ideas and projects come and go. The fact that Apple is offering the effected people the opportunity to land elsewhere in the company tells me this is just a shuffling of internal priorities.
I do see larger signs of a pullback afoot. Several tech companies have announced layoffs recently. It seems like every quarter the DOL is adjusting job creation numbers down from original estimates. I think most of the extra pandemic money has been squeezed out of the economy and consumers are starting to reach a tipping point with credit card debt and inflation. It will be interesting to see if the Fed can adjust the interest rates properly or if we end up in a full-blown recession, which we are overdue for.
How bad things will get will depend on what Black Swan ends up being the tipping point, and how big it is. No one really controls the economy, or fully understands it. But looking at the past, it's inevitable that a downturn will come eventually.
100 people in a workforce of 161,000….0.062%
and they’ve not been arbitrarily fired. We don’t even know what those staff were doing.
Obviously you're in the minority, or they'd be hiring, not firing staff.
Yeah.. useless 🙄
1. Apple $3.466Trillion
2. Nvidia $3.155T
3. Microsoft $3.076T
60 Days to find other jobs within the company!!! Musk would have dragged them on to the street and fired their mums and dads too… and their Dogs.
