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Apple cuts Fitness+ staff amid broader restructuring across AI, Siri teams
Audio-focused roles affected as Apple reportedly looks to streamline spending on its workout service
MUMBAI: Apple has reportedly carried out a second round of layoffs in less than two months, with a small number of employees in its Fitness+ team losing their jobs last week.
According to a Bloomberg report, the cuts affected staff working on the audio side of Apple’s subscription workout service. This includes features such as Time to Walk and Time to Run, which allow Apple Watch users to access guided exercise content without watching a video.
The report said Apple is expected to reduce the frequency of new audio releases on Fitness+, although the features are not being discontinued at present.
Fitness+ offers guided workouts and exercise programmes, and has been positioned as a competitor to services such as Peloton. The platform is particularly integrated with the Apple Watch ecosystem.
The latest cuts come after another round of layoffs reported in August across teams involved with Siri, Vision Pro and Intelligent Systems Experience. The latter is part of Apple’s software engineering organisation and works on some of the company’s artificial intelligence features.
The earlier restructuring reportedly affected more than 200 employees, including around 100 roles in the Vision Pro organisation and another 100 across Siri and software teams.
At the time, Apple said it was realigning teams “to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users”. The company added that new positions would be created, but “a limited number of existing roles” would be affected.
The latest job cuts have also fuelled speculation that Apple could make broader changes to Fitness+ in the coming months and years. The service requires a steady flow of fresh content and carries production costs, while subscriber churn may also affect spending decisions.
Reports have suggested that Apple could eventually bring parts of Fitness+ together with its Health app. The company is reportedly working on a revamp of the Health platform that may include video clips explaining health topics and benchmarks.
With Fitness+ and Health now operating within the same broader organisation, the workout service could eventually become more closely integrated with the Health app. However, the latest report indicated that Fitness+ is not facing an immediate shutdown.
The reported cuts come amid a wider wave of job reductions across the global technology sector. Oracle has laid off thousands of employees this month amid rising artificial intelligence-related costs, while Uber recently cut more than 3,000 jobs. Adidas also reduced its technology workforce in India, with reports suggesting that around 20 per cent of its local tech team was affected.
