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Software engineering positions have outnumbered hardware engineering positions in Apple job listings for the first time since at least the first quarter of 2016, according to data-driven website Thinknum.

software-and-services-apple-jobs-800x378.jpg

The website claims Apple's "software and services" job listings have topped its hardware engineering listings since the third quarter of 2018.

Thinknum's Joshua Fruhlinger told us that the data is sourced exclusively from Apple's jobs portal and does not include listings on third-party websites. His website began tracking the listings in the first quarter of 2016, so it's unclear if software job listings have ever topped hardware ones before.

thinknum-apple-job-listings.jpg

Whether accurate or not, the data is meaningful, as Apple has been focusing on growing and expanding its portfolio of services such as the App Store and Apple Music in recent years. Apple is also expected to introduce subscription-based news and video services at an event on March 25 at Steve Jobs Theater.

Apple has also been increasing its emphasis on machine learning and Siri under new AI chief John Giannandrea, with those areas falling under the software engineering category as well.

There are now over 1.4 billion active Apple devices around the world. That saturation coupled with rising prices has led to lower demand for some products. Last quarter, for example, Apple issued its first revenue warning in 16 years due to "fewer iPhone upgrades" than it anticipated.

With hundreds of millions of iPhones now sold, Apple is focused on building out its ecosystem of services and software features surrounding the device, and it obviously needs plenty of software engineers to accomplish that goal.

Article Link: Apple Now Seeking More Software Engineers Than Hardware Engineers
 

twocents

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2016
423
2,099
California, USA
Good! Been using iOS since v1.1 on my 1G iTouch and have to say that for typical user it has gotten a bit complicated and unintuitive. You would be surprised how often people are surprised when I show them the flashlight in Control Center, swipe to backspace in Calculator, 3D Touch shortcuts even. Further, with the A11 and A12 there is plenty of amazing hardware groundwork that needs good software to make the most of it. Cause an iPad is a computer, right?
 

fairuz

macrumors 68020
Aug 27, 2017
2,486
2,589
Silicon Valley
This is very misleading. People do not work only on software and not hardware, and visa verse. The line between two gets very blurry when you write code for personal devices, or create a device and need to write code to test it in real world use cases.
Generally you're considered a hardware engineer if you write drivers or anything lower.
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Good. I think their software quality has been a lot less than the hardware quality.
I'd maybe say this if it weren't for the MBP keyboard.
 

chucker23n1

macrumors G3
Dec 7, 2014
8,489
11,236
If accurate, the data is rather unsurprising

I would correct this to: whether accurate or not, the data is not very meaningful.

This is very misleading. People do not work only on software and not hardware, and visa verse. The line between two gets very blurry when you write code for personal devices, or create a device and need to write code to test it in real world use cases.

A software engineer is unlikely to also do hardware.

A hardware engineer may do some work in the firmware/embedded area, but typically not in higher-level software than that.

Even for a hardware product that largely relies on low-level software like AirPods, chances are software integration like the popup that shows you AirPods are nearby/connected were done by a software team.
 

Joe Rossignol

Senior Reporter
Staff member
May 12, 2012
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Canada
I would correct this to: whether accurate or not, the data is not very meaningful.



A software engineer is unlikely to also do hardware.

A hardware engineer may do some work in the firmware/embedded area, but typically not in higher-level software than that.

Even for a hardware product that largely relies on low-level software like AirPods, chances are software integration like the popup that shows you AirPods are nearby/connected were done by a software team.
Sure, I like that.
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,418
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SF Bay Area
Generally you're considered a hardware engineer if you write drivers or anything lower.

Today I am writing a Machine Learning Model that I will train on my Linux system through a user facing web site I created and deployed to the cloud. When it is trained I will deploy it via the driver I wrote to an edge device.

This moving back and forth is not uncommon as ML and AI becomes embedded into lives. A lot of other people I work with and know do the same thing. The days of just being a web developer that uses backend created by someone else, or just hardware guy that create a device and throws it over the fence are coming to a close. It is the reason top college programs have Computers Science-EE degree programs.
 
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anton_usa

macrumors newbie
May 11, 2017
11
34
Sigh... Apple's internet-based software offerings like iCloud are hardly well built or fun to use. The only software items I like are Terminal 2 and Xcode. But I loooove their hardware- like the MBP and iPhone designs.
 

Justanotherfanboy

Suspended
Jul 3, 2018
851
1,369
yeah, someone needs to work on new emojis...

Omg, hilarious. /s

But, on the real... I’d bet literally everything I own, against a donut, that the incredibly minuscule portion of Apple’s graphic design team that have ever been even remotely involved with updating emoji designs (you know, like every single other tech company does) to support the latest Unicode additions, is eclipsed by the amount of Googlers working on Doodles.
 

Swazaloo

Cancelled
Jan 3, 2014
183
418
yeah, someone needs to work on new emojis...
You do release emoji is a standard, and when they add new ones they are just complying to that standard.. right?
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Sigh... Apple's internet-based software offerings like iCloud are hardly well built or fun to use. The only software items I like are Terminal 2 and Xcode. But I loooove their hardware- like the MBP and iPhone designs.
Accessing iCloud via it's website is pretty slow and not ideal. But the native iCloud integration built into macOS is incredible.
 

BeforeTheMeds

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2016
496
440
Edomx, MX
Omg, hilarious. /s

But, on the real... I’d bet literally everything I own, against a donut, that the incredibly minuscule portion of Apple’s graphic design team that have ever been even remotely involved with updating emoji designs (you know, like every single other tech company does) to support the latest Unicode additions, is eclipsed by the amount of Googlers working on Doodles.


Sounds like someone hit a nerve.
 
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