Apple has cut about 100 jobs in the digital service group sector, including “Apple Books.” This is due to changes in priorities between departments, and considering that the digital service group has been a key department in Apple, such a reduction is considered unusual.
On the 27th (local time), Bloomberg quoted an unnamed source as saying, “Eddie Q, senior vice president of the service group, notified employees related to digital services of the reduction.”
Some engineers were included in the latest job cuts, and it was the largest among the teams in charge of Apple Books and Apple Bookstore. Other service managers, including the operating team of Apple News, were also included in the job cuts list. Apple Books is said to have undergone massive job cuts as it was evaluated as not a major segment in the service lineup within Apple.
The digital services sector has been Apple’s growth engine in recent years. It accounted for less than 10% of the company’s sales a decade ago, but more than 22% of its sales in the last fiscal year. The growth of the services sector has also filled the gap in the slowdown in the device sector, which Bloomberg pointed to as a “relatively rare move.”
Apple has cut its workforce four times this year. Earlier this year, it laid off hundreds of employees after deciding to disband its self-driving Apple Car project team and micro LED display development team.
Apple and other IT companies are also reducing their workforce on a large scale, and Silicon Valley in the U.S. has recently become a hot wind. This is to cope with slowing growth and the transition to artificial intelligence (AI). The representative company is Intel, a semiconductor company. Intel said on the 1st that its sales in the second quarter of this year were $12.83 billion (about 17.5899 trillion won). This is less than the market estimate of $12.94 billion, as well as a 1% decrease from the same period last year. In response to such an earnings shock, Intel decided to reduce its workforce by more than 15%.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
