Apple has recently laid off about 100 employees which primarily impacted the team responsible for the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore, according to the Bloomberg News report. The cuts also include some engineering roles and have affected other services teams such as the one overseeing Apple News.
It’s unclear how many employees work in Apple’s services division but the company had around 161,000 full-time employees as of September 30, 2023, according to its latest annual report.
Even after being around for quite some time, Apple Books hasn’t received any major updates in years. The app has become less of a priority for Apple with no recent updates or new features to show, as per Bloomberg. While Apple Books may noy be a key focus for Apple’s Services division right now the app isn’t going away anytime soon and is expected to get updates in the future.
Unlike many other tech giants, Apple has largely avoided mass layoffs in recent years. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have let go of thousands of employees over the past couple of years. The trend of job cuts has continued across the tech industry in 2024 as well with thousands more losing their jobs.
Apple’s services division has become a major growth engine, contributing over 22 per cent of the company’s sales in the most recent fiscal year—up from less than 10 per cent a decade ago. This growth has played a key role in balancing out times when demand for Apple’s devices has slowed, as highlighted in a Bloomberg report.