It looks like Apple is currently in the process of shifting its internal teams to focus on the company’s services businesses, according to a recent The Wall Street Journal report.
The report claims that recent hires, departures, promotions and various restructurings across the company have resulted in multiple projects being put on hold while the company reexamines its priorities.
“The primary reasons for the shifts vary by division. But collectively, they reflect Apple’s efforts to transition from an iPhone-driven company into one where growth flows from services and potentially transformative technologies,” writes The Wall Street Journal in the report.
Specific personnel changes at Apple include John Giannandrea being promoted to senior vice president from his role in machine learning and AI. The Wall Street Journal reports that Giannandrea then moved Bill Stasior, Apple’s head of Siri, to a less prominent role at the company. As the new head of Siri, Giannandrea is rumoured to have plans to “improve Siri’s accuracy and performance.”
Given how far Siri lags behind Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa in a number of ways, this is definitely good news for Apple’s voice-activated assistant.
Apple has also cut 200 employees from its autonomous vehicle effort, according to reports. The company’s engineering resources have been pivoted to focus on the launch of its streaming TV service, which is expected to be revealed in March and launch in the coming months.
As a result of stagnating smartphone sales, Apple lowered its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2019 by roughly $9 billion USD ($12 billion CAD).
Apple’s Q1 2019 financial results reveal that the company’s overall revenue fell to $84.3 billion USD ($111 billion CAD), a decline of roughly five percent when compared to the same period last year where the company pulled in $88.3 billion USD ($117 billion CAD).
Given Apple’s services division was an area of significant growth, it makes sense for the company to be focusing its efforts on its services division.
“Revenue outside of our iPhone business grew by almost 19 percent year-over-year, including all-time record revenue from Services, Wearables and Mac,” wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook in Apple’s Q1 2019 earnings report.
Along with a streaming video platform, the company is expected to finally launch Apple News in Canada along with a news subscription service.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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