Apple Begins New Round of Job Cuts While Apple has already been reported to slash jobs in its first two weeks of October, an influx of job cuts recently has begun again. Bloombergreports thatworkers on Apple Fitness+’s audio-content team have been laid off.
Just weeks after Apple cut over 200 roles in teams related to Siri, Vision Pro and software engineering. The new round of layoffs shows how Apple still appears to be shifting its workforce along new focus areas, like artificial intelligence, and its larger health ecosystem.
Apple layoffs target Fitness+ audio team
The most recent cuts at Apple are said to be affecting a handful of staff members who handle audio for the Fitness+ service. The team handles features like Time to Walk and Time to Run, which are guided audio workouts created for Apple Watch wearers.
For those used to a full outage of the service, the new reorganization is likely to impact the production rate of new audio programming. It is said that Apple Fitness+ will continue to run, but users are likely to see a reduced number of new audio releases from the team.
Apple has not made public how many workers in total were affected in this second round, nor has it confirmed how many of its employees have been laid off on Fitness+.
Apple cuts jobs for the second time in less than 2 months
The recent layoffs are a follow-up to a far more widespread restructuring announced in August. Over 200 Apple employees were said to be impacted across the Vision Pro division, Siri teams and Intelligent Systems Experience, a software group that worked on various AI features.
Approximately 100 jobs were said to have been cut in the Vision Pro team, with a further 100 cuts reported across the Siri and other software teams.
Apple at the time explained the updates as a reorganization of teams as the tech giant continue to change its business and introduce new experiences for users. The company said it will also create new jobs as part of the reorganization, and not just lay off staff across the board.
Why Apple is restructuring its teams
Apple’s fresh layoff is in line with the company resizing its investment in products and services. The company’s emphasis on AI, software development and health-related tech has significantly increased of late.
It’s incorporated within Apple’s broader health and fitness service. When it comes to health and fitness, everyone has an ecosystem of their own. At its core, Fiteness+ is designed to support fitness for apple users and the health app is a hub for health data and insights.
According to reports, Apple is considering other types of health-related material inside the app such as videos about health subjects or tools used to track health standards. This integration might extend Apple’s Fitness+ elsewhere into its health ecosystem.
Fitness+ service is not being discontinued
At this point, there’s no indication Apple will be shutting down Fitness+ despite the recent layoffs.
Rather, it seems to be the way the service creates and distributes some classes. The smaller audio team might not produce new classes as often, and Apple is still running the broader Fitness+ service.
This matters as the redundancies are for a section of the company rather than the closure of the service that offered Apple’s fitness subscription.
Apple shifts focus towards AI and health
The constant restructuring also occurs as Apple reorients its resources toward artificial intelligence and next-generation user experiences.
Cuts at the company earlier in the year impacted teams working on Siri and software as Apple transitions to a new AI-centric architecture for the voice service. Teams working on Vision Pro were also reshued, including those developing gaming and immersive video experiences.
The recent Fitness+ modifications, in truth, are one more sign of a wider trend as Apple is downsizing groups rather than keeping all of the existing groups at the same level.
What do Apple layoffs imply for employees and customers
This process can lead to a sense of insecurity for employees as technology firms reconfigure teams to align with shifting product priorities. It can be less visible to consumers if firms keep running services but invest less in specific functions.
One of the most direct transformations in Fitness+ might be the quantity of latest audio materials. It doesn’t seem the Apple is stopping Fitness+ altogether.
Latest Apple layoffs remind us that giant tech companies are regularly replacing human workers with newer technology as AI, software, health tech and new product experiences are prioritized.
