The maker of iPhone has reportedly decided to cut jobs again in two months coming at a time when technology companies are becoming more cautious about hiring. The latest cuts mark Apple’s second reported layoff round in less than two months.
The layoffs have hit a small group of employees in Apple. Those affected are the one working on the audio side of its Fitness+ service, according to a Bloomberg report.
As per the report, the employees affected were reportedly part of the team working on audio features such as Time to Walk and Time to Run that offer guided workouts through Apple Watch without requiring users to watch a video.
Fitness+ itself is not being discontinued. However, new audio content is expected to be released less frequently, reports said.
First set of layoffs:
First latest set of layoffs at Apple came in August when nearly 200 employees were affected.
The earlier layoffs affected teams linked to Siri, Vision Pro and Intelligent Systems Experience, which is part of Apple’s software engineering organisation and works on some AI-related features.
The reported layoffs involve employees associated with Apple’s VR operations, including members of the Apple Vision Group and people working in related roles.
The layoffs came after Apple executive Steve Sinclair pushed back against speculation that the company had effectively shelved Vision Pro.
“It’s still early innings for spatial computing. And so, there’s a lot of things that we’re doing, we’re learning, and continue to improve on and continue to invest in. And so I would hope that updates like visionOS 27 and all the things that we’re adding, and all the capabilities that we’re unlocking, whether it’s for consumer use or it’s for business use, serves as evidence that we are invested in this platform and we’re invested in this idea of spatial computing and building these capabilities that just can’t be done on any other device,” he had said.