Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Now Seeking More Software Engineers Than Hardware Engineers
Software engineering positions have outnumbered hardware engineering positions in Apple job listings for the first time since at least the first quarter of 2016, according to data-driven website Thinknum.
The website claims Apple's "software and services" job listings have topped its hardware engineering listings since the third quarter of 2018.
Thinknum's Joshua Fruhlinger told us that the data is sourced exclusively from Apple's jobs portal and does not include listings on third-party websites. His website began tracking the listings in the first quarter of 2016, so it's unclear if software job listings have ever topped hardware ones before.
Whether accurate or not, the data is meaningful, as Apple has been focusing on growing and expanding its portfolio of services such as the App Store and Apple Music in recent years. Apple is also expected to introduce subscription-based news and video services at an event on March 25 at Steve Jobs Theater.
Apple has also been increasing its emphasis on machine learning and Siri under new AI chief John Giannandrea, with those areas falling under the software engineering category as well.
There are now over 1.4 billion active Apple devices around the world. That saturation coupled with rising prices has led to lower demand for some products. Last quarter, for example, Apple issued its first revenue warning in 16 years due to "fewer iPhone upgrades" than it anticipated.
With hundreds of millions of iPhones now sold, Apple is focused on building out its ecosystem of services and software features surrounding the device, and it obviously needs plenty of software engineers to accomplish that goal.
The website claims Apple's "software and services" job listings have topped its hardware engineering listings since the third quarter of 2018.
Thinknum's Joshua Fruhlinger told us that the data is sourced exclusively from Apple's jobs portal and does not include listings on third-party websites. His website began tracking the listings in the first quarter of 2016, so it's unclear if software job listings have ever topped hardware ones before.
Whether accurate or not, the data is meaningful, as Apple has been focusing on growing and expanding its portfolio of services such as the App Store and Apple Music in recent years. Apple is also expected to introduce subscription-based news and video services at an event on March 25 at Steve Jobs Theater.
Apple has also been increasing its emphasis on machine learning and Siri under new AI chief John Giannandrea, with those areas falling under the software engineering category as well.
There are now over 1.4 billion active Apple devices around the world. That saturation coupled with rising prices has led to lower demand for some products. Last quarter, for example, Apple issued its first revenue warning in 16 years due to "fewer iPhone upgrades" than it anticipated.
With hundreds of millions of iPhones now sold, Apple is focused on building out its ecosystem of services and software features surrounding the device, and it obviously needs plenty of software engineers to accomplish that goal.
Tags: Apple job listings, Thinknum
[ 95 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
25 weeks ago
This is very misleading. People do not work only on software and not hardware, and visa verse. The line between two gets very blurry when you write code for personal devices, or create a device and need to write code to test it in real world use cases.
Most software engineers do not do hardware.
25 weeks ago
Good. I think their software quality has been a lot less than the hardware quality.
25 weeks ago
yeah, someone needs to work on new emojis...
Or the $45B services business...
25 weeks ago
This is very misleading. People do not work only on software and not hardware, and visa verse. The line between two gets very blurry when you write code for personal devices, or create a device and need to write code to test it in real world use cases.
Generally you're considered a hardware engineer if you write drivers or anything lower.[doublepost=1551460673][/doublepost]
Good. I think their software quality has been a lot less than the hardware quality.
I'd maybe say this if it weren't for the MBP keyboard.
25 weeks ago
If accurate, the data is rather unsurprising
I would correct this to: whether accurate or not, the data is not very meaningful.
This is very misleading. People do not work only on software and not hardware, and visa verse. The line between two gets very blurry when you write code for personal devices, or create a device and need to write code to test it in real world use cases.
A software engineer is unlikely to also do hardware.
A hardware engineer may do some work in the firmware/embedded area, but typically not in higher-level software than that.
Even for a hardware product that largely relies on low-level software like AirPods, chances are software integration like the popup that shows you AirPods are nearby/connected were done by a software team.
25 weeks ago
Good! Been using iOS since v1.1 on my 1G iTouch and have to say that for typical user it has gotten a bit complicated and unintuitive. You would be surprised how often people are surprised when I show them the flashlight in Control Center, swipe to backspace in Calculator, 3D Touch shortcuts even. Further, with the A11 and A12 there is plenty of amazing hardware groundwork that needs good software to make the most of it. Cause an iPad is a computer, right?
25 weeks ago
yeah, someone needs to work on new emojis...
Omg, hilarious. /s
But, on the real... I’d bet literally everything I own, against a donut, that the incredibly minuscule portion of Apple’s graphic design team that have ever been even remotely involved with updating emoji designs (you know, like every single other tech company does) to support the latest Unicode additions, is eclipsed by the amount of Googlers working on Doodles.
25 weeks ago
For a large and wealthy company, it baffles me how Apple can only focus on one thing at a time.
25 weeks ago
Or the $45B services business...
It’s about time those services actually start working outside the USA. I’ve been sponsoring Apple with lots of €€ for years now and only seeing crippled half baked services go into action for the so called miraculous ecotrap.these days they’ve become more like an handicap than a selling point.Messages is hard to use when most friends, colleagues don’t have it. Same for FaceTime. Maps is a disaster compared to google apps as is Siri and iCloud.
[doublepost=1551519448][/doublepost]
Seriously, when will people on this forum stop posting this c**p? Apple of course adds new emojis as they are added to the Unicode Standard. I think it should be a bannable offence to keep repeating these boring comments on this forum, it's like the new "safari is snappier" but totally unfunny.
I will stop posting this c**p by the time Apple introduces something useful. Thank you![ Read All Comments ]
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Vessel to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Signature 2.0 Backpack.
Vessel makes all kinds of backpacks, briefcases, and bags, but...
Discounts on the latest iMacs remain ongoing this month, with Amazon and B&H Photo now offering a new all-time-low price on the 27-inch Retina iMac with 8GB RAM and a 1TB Fusion Drive. This model...
Google and Apple calendars are not playing friendly right now.
As alerted to us by multiple MacRumors readers, there appears to be a syncing issue with Google Calendar and Apple's...
Apple Music today launched a new curated playlist called "New Music Daily," which as the name suggests, is updated every day with fresh songs.
Made up of "new music you simply...
Taylor Swift revealed today on Instagram that she will be the next partner in Apple's "Music Lab" sessions, which are available in Apple retail stores.
The Music Lab session will...
Satechi today announced the Type-C Dual Multimedia Adapter, which plugs into two of the MacBook Pro's USB-C ports to offer a handful of add-on ports.
In total, this includes: one 4K HDMI...
Spotify today announced that it is extending its free-trial period for Spotify Premium to three months, up from the previous one month that users would have to try out the paid service. With this...
OtterBox today announced a new expandable wireless charging system that it calls "OtterSpot," which includes one charging base that can power up multiple batteries and a smartphone...
