Apple has fired over 100 News+ and Books team employees this week. The affected people worked in Senior Vice President Eddy Cue’s services group. According to a Bloomberg report, most layoffs were on the Apple Books team, which has become less of a priority for the company, and it doesn’t see it as a significant part of its services lineup.
The Apple Books app has become less of a priority for the company, which doesn’t see it as a significant part of its services lineup. Throughout the last few iOS annual updates, Apple Books hasn’t received any essential new features besides a price drop notification on the latest iOS 18 Beta. Apple does not promote the bookstore anymore. This is due to Apple Books losing market share due to the Kindle Store or Audible.
The removal of employees in the Apple Books department and their positions are unknown; most people worked in both divisions. The report disclosed that most of them were engineers, and others were on Apple Books and News’s curation team. Curation is a mixed bag since AI can now do most of this work without the need for people overseeing the posted content. However, if people have an iPhone or iPad, Apple Books remains the only mainstream bookstore where you can buy e-books and audiobooks in the app.
Services have generally been Apple’s growth engine in recent years. They accounted for more than 22% of sales in the most recent fiscal year, up from less than 10% a decade ago, and the rise has helped cushion sluggish demand for devices at times.