(ProsperNews.net) – Tech giant Apple has laid off more than 600 California employees after an electric vehicle (EV) project failed to take off. Documents filed with the California Employment Development Department revealed that the affected employees were involved in research and development, including the expensive EV initiative that has cost the company $1 billion a year since 2014 and was scrapped in February.
Although the layoffs constitute a small percentage of the firm’s 161,000 employees, they come when Apple is experiencing additional problems, including slow sales and Microsoft’s rise to the world’s most valuable company in January, leaving Apple in second place.
Reduced iPhone demand caused Apple’s stock to gain just 0.2% in January, compared to Microsoft’s 1%, marking the first time since 2021 that Microsoft was in front with a market value of $2.89 trillion compared to Apple’s $2.87 trillion.
Adding to its woes, the Department of Justice recently filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of unlawfully monopolizing the smartphone market. Filed in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, the lawsuit states that Apple engages in anticompetitive conduct to maintain its smartphone market dominance. The DOJ said Apple had made it more difficult for its customers to leave instead of making it attractive for them to stay. It also uses its technology to impede cross-platform communication and degrades the functionality of competitors, the suit claims.
Additionally, iPhone sales, Apple’s defining and top-selling smartphone, have collapsed, particularly in China, where it lags behind Chinese companies Vivo, Huawei, and Honor. Despite its status as the country’s top-selling iPhone in 2023, by early 2024, sales were down 24%. The drop occurred despite a $275 billion deal with the communist government to prevent any restrictions on Apple products in China.
In exchange, Apple agreed to invest billions in helping Chinese companies develop products using “the most advanced manufacturing technologies” in the world. Officials had previously complained that Apple was not investing enough in the Chinese market.
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