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Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said the company is struggling with the coronavirus after canceling several ambitious projects and declining iPhone sales in China, its largest overseas market. The company is under pressure as it cuts its workforce for the first time since the pandemic began. Apple plans to cut 614 employees at eight different facilities in Santa Clara, Calif., near its Cupertino headquarters, effective May 27, according to a state filing this week.
The job cuts are likely related to Apple’s recent closure of its Special Projects Group, a secret initiative launched a decade ago that included projects such as developing fully self-driving electric cars. Apple recently scrapped a project to build a next-generation Apple Watch screen using microLED technology late last month after it proved too expensive and complex, Bloomberg reported.
Although small compared to the 161,000 full-time employees Apple hired at the end of the previous fiscal year, the iPhone maker has so far avoided layoffs even as big tech companies cut tens of thousands of jobs. The recent job cuts are particularly significant given what has happened. Employment will decline in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report from job market consulting group Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The company is also facing serious headwinds in China, with iPhone sales down 24% in the first six weeks of this year, according to Counterpoint Research.
Last week, shortly after Apple was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in an antitrust lawsuit accusing it of monopolizing the smartphone market, Mr. As the company grapples with intensifying competition with Wei, it visited Shanghai on a charm offensive.
Current roadblocks aside, Counterpoint is expected to arrive in 2025 as Apple reveals its long-awaited artificial intelligence strategy at its developer conference on June 10 and more emerging markets are expected to adopt the iPhone. It is predicted that Apple’s annual revenue will surpass the $100 billion mark for the first time. , which is likely to offset the decline in sales in China.
Cook also sold 200,000 Apple shares this week, worth $32 million, according to SEC filings. The sale netted Mr. Cook approximately $16 million. Apple stock has fallen 8.6% so far in 2024, reducing the company’s value by more than $200 billion.
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