Apple to Cut Back on New Hires Following Disappointing Holiday iPhone Sales

[MultiMan]

I wonder what divisions will end up being cut back....

I hope not, but the cuts will probably be Mac, especially desktop Mac, and ATV divisions, while the emoji and watch band divisions will continue to add employees....

I am joking of course, but maybe it might be true....

Actually I fear it could be the watch band division than gets more people as Tim Cook has shown that profit is key, damn all else.

Remember what Steve Jobs said to lure Sculley into Apple: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

Under Tim Cook, to me as an outsider, Apple has lost its will and ability to change the world. Selling plastic bands is just good enough if the profit is there.

 

[nikaru]

Simply another example that Apple is in a new Medieval Period, like the one it found itself after Steve's departure.
A period where marketeers, accountants and numbers ruled the company... A period where alot of technical mistakes were made, but the company was too blind to acknowledge them.
The iPhone XR is the typical example of a product created after the request from people dealing with numbers, and was delivered as a half baked idea (overpriced, underspec'ed)
If Apple wants to innovate, the 500$ range offers alot of opportunities for them, to generate a new revenue stream (China, India and even in South-East Europe) and sustain their numbers

Apple should go private if they want to continue inovating and making revolutionary products or they should stop publishing sales numbers and revenues breakdown. Although Tim ensure us that he ignores Wall Street, the preassure for selling more phones that the year ago quarter is there. I hope this revenue hit gives them a lesson and this lesson is not just "dont offer batterly replacment program for 29$ because you will loose billions of dollars".

 

[Woyzeck]

The really depressing information here is what the Apple of 2008 was able to achieve with just a quarter of today‘s workforce at much lower price points and costs.

 

[SoulCloud]

Impressive that around 30K workforce had delivered MacOSX Snow Leopard, Unibody Mac machinery, Macbook Air, proper Pro Products, iPod Classic 120GB, iPhone Original to 4S, iOS as we know it, iPad, iPod Touch, Time Machine, Capsules, Airport Expresses, greatest Keyboards of all times, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and many more earlier technological breakthroughs current 130K strong Apple piggybacks on.

 

[Abazigal]

The really depressing information here is what the Apple of 2008 was able to achieve with just a quarter of today‘s workforce at much lower price points and costs.

The Apple of 2008 was also operating at a much smaller scale compared to the Apple of today.

 

[0388631]

Everything was cheaper in 2008, too.

 

[The Game 161]

Or they don't do so great phones, phones lacking in several areas. After switching to a P20 Pro last spring (left iPhone in 2016, but still use them from time to time), what would I get if I were to get an iPhone today compared to Huawei P20 Pro?

1. Worse battery life.
2. Worse and less versatile camera.
3. No beautiful Twilight gradient finishes.
4. Locked down iOS with less freedom to customize and artificial limitations.
5. Significantly longer charge time even with Apple's faster chargers versus Huawei Super Charge. Despite higher Apple prices I have to pay extra for the charger and headphone dongle.
6. No IR-blaster
7. No universal USB-C
8. No fingerprint scanner.

9. At best equal build quality (imho).

10. Better A12 CPU, which speed I don't really need. Kirin 970 does everything I need without delays.
11. Probably better calibrated screen and a little higher dpi (on XS->)
12. Way better taptic engine. No comparison.
13. Advanced FaceID, something I don't care for and after trying both sides, still prefer TouchID and other well working FPS. Actually, Huawei's variant in P20 works better than all TouchID phones I've tried, especially with damp/dirty fingers.
14. Wireless charging.

Even if Apple lowered prices, they still don't offer enough in several key areas to make me want to switch back.

I've bought 3 Huawei devices last 2 years. They could've been iPhones instead if Apple offered more innovation and less stagnant designs, yet increasing prices. I love to switch phones but I want it to have some other purpose than just emptying my wallet.

Just because you have found a phone better for you doesn’t mean iPhones aren’t great phones. They are just different compared to android

 

[Bacillus]

Apple is literally a company where if tim cook took a piss, haters will wonder if its because of declining iphone sales.

That pee might stabilize price levels - so have it to perpetuate forever...

 

[0388631]

Speaking of Samsungs only, the new ones without an IR blaster can connect to Samsung smart TVs (and you could probably install Sony smart TV or LG smart TV official apps on your Samsung or otherwise phone) and connect to the TV on the network and flip channels, open up apps, type stuff out, etc. without an IR blaster. Though I suppose the IR blaster is useful for older televisions. Though if you use a third party set top box like a Roku, don't they offer apps that will do the same thing?

You can stand outside your home and do it, too, from what I've read.
[doublepost=1547723642][/doublepost]Though I wonder if the people complaining about Apple have spoken out loud at Apple or sent in their concerns instead of posting on a messaging board. I'm aware Apple employees sometimes read this board as per a MacRumor's blog post from years ago, but I doubt they're logging anything being discussed here.

I partake in the Windows 10 fast-ring testers on a VM. I've sent in many concerns and suggestions, many of which have been addressed and taken up by the MS team responsible for pushing out fixes and new features. I'm pretty sure if MS can do it then so can a former trillion dollar company.

 

[Bacillus]

Though I wonder if the people complaining about Apple have spoken out loud at Apple or sent in their concerns instead of posting on a messaging board. I'm aware Apple employees sometimes read this board as per a MacRumor's blog post from years ago, but I doubt they're logging anything being discussed here.

Man, did so for 20+ years without any effect.
feedback@apple.com has the best digital shredder of the planet
Try it yourself. Employees seem to lose their ears at Apple, somewhere above D-level.

 

[Falhófnir]

The company has over a Trillion Dollars with obscene amount of money overseas that can't be taxed, but they need to "cut back"?



Greed is what is what is destroying popular opinion of the the company and driving down sales.

The company doesn’t have over a trillion dollars - it was (briefly) worth a trillion dollars in market cap terms (the value of all its outstanding shares) but now even that is no longer the case (it’s now hovering around the $750B level). In terms of actual cash assets it’s got about $280 billion, but against that approximately $100 billion in debt. Actually repatriating the money to use it would also incur some pretty hefty taxation, so you’re probably talking closer to 1/10th of a trillion dollars when all is said and done.

 

[Bacillus]

The company doesn’t have over a trillion dollars - it was (briefly) worth a trillion dollars in market cap terms (the value of all its outstanding shares) but now even that is no longer the case (it’s now hovering around the $750B level). In terms of actual cash assets it’s got about $280 billion, but against that approximately $100 billion in debt. Actually repatriating the money to use it would also incur some pretty hefty taxation, so you’re probably talking closer to 1/10th of a trillion dollars when all is said and done.

The bottomline is that firing or hiring people - in the dimensions you describe - is just as symbolic as molecular.
Better change Tim's overcapitalist lifestyle instead of taking symbolic non-measures.
We're not all idiots, out here

 

[RamGuy]

I guess this makes sense for investors that craves the absolute best profitability and that impossible endless growth in revenue.

But from a company standpoint. If Apple is starting to loose traction in terms of sales, isn't this the time you would want to invest, diversify and get new talent in order to bring yourself back?

Why would you start to scale down as soon as your steady increase of insanely good growth over the past years starts to slow and retract? If you have endless amount of money, and still earn stupids amount of money every quarter shouldn't you start spending this money in an attempt to not start rolling backwards?

 

[Falhófnir]

The bottomline is that firing or hiring people - in the dimensions you describe - is just as symbolic as molecular.
Better change Tim's overcapitalist lifestyle instead of taking symbolic non-measures.
We're not all idiots, out here

View attachment 816145

I’m not entirely sure that was meant to be directed at me?

 

[akbarali.ch]

It’s not just greed, if you look at the smart phone market, it’s completely saturated, which is a result of slower upgrades for those who used the battery exchange program and iOS 12 was a major contributor to the performance factor with older iPhones.

Market is definitely saturated. Smartphones progressed leaps and bound with companies adding everything that possibly can be fitted inside that package, and everyone's phone does almost all the essentials they want to do. So, its definitely one of the main reason, apart from, obviously the PRICE.

And also the ios12 optimization that everyone forgets. By this time (on iOS12) iPhone 6 would have become literally useless and iPhone 6S almost useless. But both are performing great. So, these devices can be easily dragged for another year or 2.

 

[boswald]

Apple would make a great episode of American Greed.

 

[Bacillus]

I’m not entirely sure that was meant to be directed at me?

No sorry, that was directed to the mere sheepy part of the customer universe that Tim tends to prioritize...
But you might answer for them, as they use to remain silent

 

[jamface]

Apple plans to cut back on hiring for some divisions of the company after disappointing iPhone sales during the holiday season, reports Bloomberg.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the news with employees at an all-hands meeting earlier this month. According to sources in attendance, Cook was asked if Apple would implement a hiring freeze, but he said that he didn't believe that was an ideal solution. Instead, select divisions will see reduced hirings.

Cook at the time said Apple had not yet determined which divisions would cut back on hiring, but groups like the AI team will continue to add employees. Cook also told employees that a division's importance to the future of Apple is not measured through hiring rates.

It's not clear how extensive the hiring reduction will be, but new Apple offices planned in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, California will not be impacted. In 2018, Apple added 9,000 new employees, and in 2017, Apple added 7,000 new employees. According to a recent SEC filing, Apple employs a total of 132,000 people, including its retail locations.

Apple's workforce over the past 10 years, chart via Bloomberg​

Apple held the all-hands meeting shortly after announcing that it was lowering revenue guidance for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 due to fewer iPhone sales than anticipated.

Apple is expecting revenue of $84 billion for Q1 2019, down from a November estimate of $89 to $93 billion and a $4.3 billion drop from the year-ago quarter.

Cook provided multiple reasons for the drop, including iPhone XS, XS Max and XR launch timing, a strong U.S. dollar, supply constraints, economic weakness and trade tensions in China, and weak iPhone upgrade numbers due to fewer carrier subsidies and low-priced battery replacements.

According to Bloomberg, internally, Apple executives have positioned declining iPhone sales as an opportunity for innovation, and Apple is also planning to bolster its growing services category with third-party integrations and an upcoming streaming TV service.In addition to fewer new hires in some divisions, Apple has also cut iPhone XR and XS production by 10 percent due to flagging iPhone sales, and it is encouraging more upgrades by dropping prices in China and offering increased trade-in values in the U.S. and other countries.

Article Link: Apple to Cut Back on New Hires Following Disappointing Holiday iPhone Sales

[doublepost=1547729990][/doublepost]It’s all over for Apple.

 

[RickInHouston]

ALL phones have reached commodity status.

End of the ride.

 

[LordVic]

If the forecasts are what Apple claim, even at 84b instead of the previous number, than profits aren't going to be a problem. Sure, they wont break any records, but they will still be large enoughstill. The only reason for a slowdown hiring freeze is to keep margins pegged, or increase them.

I think this is the wrong direction and shows that the Accountants and sales teams are running the show, not the product people. it's a stinky look

 

[Bacillus]

If the forecasts are what Apple claim, even at 84b instead of the previous number, than profits aren't going to be a problem. Sure, they wont break any records, but they will still be large enoughstill. The only reason for a slowdown hiring freeze is to keep margins pegged, or increase them.

I think this is the wrong direction and shows that the Accountants and sales teams are running the show, not the product people. it's a stinky look

It’s not just covering costs today, but merely market share, margins, volume sold, new market perspectives, price/performance related to competition, innovation trends that are the metrics/indexes to determine stock value and a healthy future.
In saturated markets, Apple has come to depend on huge amounts of cash that can’t be sustained in the current situation. Price elasticity has come to an end. Competitive advantage has been lost, lamented or not. Huge reserves but waning perspectives.

 

[Apple IIc]

I didn’t know those things made a phone bad. But since you mentioned them specifically:

Notch already being copied.
Dropping 3.5mm port already being copied.
Bluetooth headphones ramping up.
USB-C rumored to be coming.

Anything else? If not, I guess we’ll see hiring take off soon.

Because some other manufactures have copied these moves is not proof that it was the correct move.

There are many people, myself included, that view the removal of the headphone jack as a consumer-hostile move simply designed to increase profits by pushing people into wireless headsets. If this is untrue, why hasn't the company released a case that includes a headphone jack? It is not for lack of demand.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Well, Im priced out. I like many updated my phone every two years, while I don't see that stopping, it wont be an Apple. The pricing is off in fairly land. Apple and apologists can corporate speak and invoke as many charts as they like, but when the music stops the reality is I am no longer a customer due their current pricing model. Instead of getting some money from me, they are now getting no money.

 

[pubb]

I bought a MBP to replace my 2010 MBP, and except for display and processor, the new machine is inferior in every way. Older machine was thicker and heavier, but also had multiple connections like ethernet, USB, SD card, DVD, and a very usable keyboard. The new machine has only to connections, requires a dongle for everything, and is so fragile that having a hinge that stuck ever so slightly cracked the screen (replaced under warranty). If I want to use an external display and ethernet simultaneously, I need not one but two dongles or a third-party dock.

There is nothing less "Apple" than having to use a dongle.

I do think Apple have made several mistakes over the past few years, but I also think some of you guys are exaggerating.

Not making excuses for them, but very few iPads ship bent. And if they do? You can exchange it/them. Most people who have the new Macs likely get a USBC-USB adapter. Thus they’re able to plug their phone into their computer.

The list goes on, but I really don’t think Apple is in as bad of shape as everyone is making it seem. I think their prices are the craziest thing, but you get what you pay for.

We’ll see what happens this year.

 

[groove-agent]

I think Apple is failing at trying to convince us that $1000 phones is the “new normal”. Bring back the SE for the rest of us who aren’t completely addicted to their smartphones .