Amid ongoing layoffs by tech giants like Meta-owned Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter and Google, among others, Cupertino-based Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that layoffs at the iPhone maker will be made only a “last resort”, media reports say. This comes amid a global economic slowdown and Apple has also slowed the pace of new hiring and cutting costs.
“I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment,” the Apple CEO was quoted as saying by CNBC. However, the world’s most valuable tech company did not rule out the possibility of laying off staffers. Cook was also quoted as saying that the company was “being extremely prudent” in hiring.
The Apple CEO was further quoted by CNBC that he views layoffs “as a last resort” and “mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment”.
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It should be noted that Apple laid off a small number of employees in its corporate retail division earlier last month, suggest reports. Apple was perhaps one of the few companies that did not hire the way other tech majors did during the Covid-19 pandemic and this is why it is better positioned not to lay off employees.
Apple’s March Quarter Revenue
Earlier last week, Apple reported its March quarter results and the tech giant reported revenue of $94.8 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, which is down 3 per cent YoY, but the company posted a profit of $24 billion, beating analysts’ expectations amid a slowing economy. Bumper iPhone sales contributed $51.3 billion to Apple’s profits in this quarter.
“Today, we’re reporting revenue of $94.8 billion for the March quarter, which was better than our expectations. We set an all-time record for Services and a March quarter record for iPhone. We were particularly pleased with the performance we saw in emerging markets and achieved all-time records in Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE, as well as a number of March quarter records, including in Brazil, Malaysia and India, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, had said in a statement.
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Apple iPhone sales increased 1.5 per cent to $51.33 billion. However, Mac sales declined more than 30 per cent to $7.17 billion.