The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL.US), while re-evaluating the future of the Fitness+ fitness subscription service, has cut some of its employees, which indicates that the development focus of this online fitness subscription platform may change. This Fitness+ adjustment can be seen as a major signal of Apple's optimization of resource allocation and service business portfolio. It strives to accelerate the shift in performance growth to expensive folding screen iPhones and Apple's AI strategy, which is one of the core growth themes in the future.
According to media reports, the layoffs involved a small number of employees in the audio business, and the exact amount of savings and budget flow have not been disclosed. A more valuable change is that fitness content may be further integrated with Health apps: Apple has announced that it will launch a new version of Health supported by Apple Intelligence (Apple AI service system) during the year, linking health data, personalized insights, and personalized fitness education content. If Fitness+ integration continues to advance, it is expected to reduce scattered content investment, so that data collected by Apple Watch can be more effectively converted into daily service experiences on Apple end devices such as iPhones, thereby enhancing device usage stickiness and subscription retention.
The catalyst for strong growth in future performance will undoubtedly be a high-end product structure upgrade brought about by expensive folding screen iPhones, as well as a new round of Apple switching demand brought about by the endside+cloud reasoning AI experience.
The iPhone Duo, which has already been released, starts at $1999. It is equipped with a 7.6-inch inner screen and supports the side-by-side operation of dual apps, which undoubtedly adds a higher level of product price to Apple. For folding screens, the Apple AI system will allow users to view data on one side and interact efficiently with Apple AI's super voice assistant Siri AI in a larger display space, further improving multi-tasking efficiency with personal context understanding and cross-application operation, thus enhancing the practical value of high-priced products.
Fitness subscriptions are facing adjustments, and the new iPhone product line and AI strategy are attracting market attention
Some media reported that Apple is considering replanning its Fitness+ subscription service, citing information revealed by people familiar with the matter. People familiar with the matter said that while re-evaluating the future of the Fitness+ subscription service, Apple has cut some employees in the department, which indicates that the development focus of this platform may change.
Overall, the layoffs implemented last week involved workers in the Fitness+ audio business, including content such as “walk time” and “run time,” and users can listen to these shows on Apple Watch without watching videos.
Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) shares fell 0.2% in night trading before Monday. Over the past week, Apple's stock price rose 1.2%. This period also included major launches of the new iPhone 18 Pro and folding screen iPhone products.
Apple will not cancel this audio content, but there are media reports that it is expected that the frequency of new content will be released less frequently. According to reports, the company also sees this latest layoff as a potential starting point for more extensive cost cuts and Fitness+ adjustments in the coming months and years.
Apple has been re-evaluating Fitness+ since earlier this year; the service competes fiercely with AI-based sports and fitness platforms such as Peloton.
One potential direction is to integrate Fitness+ more deeply into Apple's revised “health” app. Apple is already preparing a major overhaul of the “Health” app, including the addition of videos explaining health topics and personal benchmarks.
Meanwhile, Apple's latest iPhone series, including the new iPhone Duo, have become the focus of investors' and analysts' attention after launch. Duo marks Apple's entry into the folding screen smartphone market, and is positioned as an important new product form rather than a short test.
As a result, the market is closely watching early reactions to find signals about Duo demand and Apple's overall iPhone strategy. Senior Wall Street analysts are also actively evaluating whether this new model can bring a new switching cycle to Apple's most important products, especially as the company continues to expand Apple's intelligence and AI capabilities.
On the Stocktwits platform, retail investors' sentiment about Apple's (AAPL.US) stock price and fundamental growth declined over the past week, and was in a “bearish” state as of Monday morning. But since this year, Apple's stock price has risen sharply by 23.3%.
Fitness+ adjusts and optimizes Apple's internal resource allocation, folding screen and AI redraw Apple's growth path
This Fitness+ adjustment can be seen as a sign of Apple's optimization of resource allocation and service mix. Support for folding screens and AI strategies is mainly reflected in the growing collaboration between organizational efficiency and the expansion of Apple's Apple consumer electronics ecosystem.
Apple recently announced that it will launch a new version of Health supported by Apple Intelligence (Apple's AI service system) during the year, linking health data, personalized insights, and personalized fitness education content. If Fitness+ integration continues to advance, it is expected to reduce scattered content investment, so that data collected by Apple Watch can be more effectively converted into daily service experiences on Apple end devices such as iPhones, thereby enhancing device usage stickiness and subscription retention.
A more powerful catalyst for future performance is the demand for a new round of iPhone switching brought about by high-end product structure upgrades brought about by folding screens and the exclusive AI experience that Apple has been planning for many years.
Apple's iPhone and service business revenue for the third fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2026 was US$54.252 billion and US$30.739 billion respectively, accounting for about 77.7% of total revenue. The iPhone Duo, which has already been released, starts at $1999. It is equipped with a 7.6-inch inner screen and supports the operation of dual apps side by side, adding a higher tier of products to Apple. The financial transmission logic is to increase the average sales price through the proportion of higher-priced models, enhance the desire to switch through new usage scenarios, and expand service revenue opportunities through equipment retention. According to the official arrangement, Duo will begin pre-order on October 16 and go on sale on October 23. This growth potential will gradually be tested with actual delivery.
AI also provides Apple with a new path to extend from hardware sales to ongoing service revenue. Apple has stated in an official statement that some AI features that rely on the server model will provide paid extended access in the future. This means that the commercial contribution of AI can be reflected not only in hardware upgrades, but also in higher usage quotas and ongoing service charges. As deduced from this, Apple's new growth portfolio worth paying attention to is “folding screens enhance hardware value, and AI expands functional value and service monetization space”; if Fitness+ adjustments help the company concentrate execution resources, its effect is closer to improving efficiency for this overall strategy.
Looking at the underlying architecture, Apple's AI service ecosystem clearly uses collaboration between the end side and the cloud: on-device AI (on-device AI) processes tasks suitable for local execution, and cloud-based private AI cloud computing (i.e. Private Cloud Compute, PCC) undertakes more complex model requests.
Local models are compressed and quantized, and combined with self-developed chips to balance time latency, memory usage, energy consumption, and personal privacy, app collaboration, and end-side personalization; PCC runs larger models through servers equipped with Apple chips to expand complex reasoning capabilities.
For expensive folding screen iPhone series products, Apple's AI ecosystem is expected to become an important product catalyst: larger display space allows users to view data on one side, interact with Siri on one side, and further improve multi-tasking efficiency with personal context understanding and cross-application operation, thereby enhancing the practical value of high-priced products. This catalysis comes from the combination of “large screen workspace+AI task execution”; AI simultaneously serves multiple compatible iPhones, and the difference of Duo is that these capabilities are presented in a way that is more suitable for parallel operation.
On Wall Street, analysts are most optimistic about Apple's rising target price hovering around $400. The $400 target price range includes Wedbush's former senior analyst Dan Ives and TD Cowen's Krish Sankar, which means that in the opinion of these analysts, Apple with a market value close to 5 trillion US dollars could increase by about 20% over the next 12 months. Ives's core bullish logic is that Apple is expected to become a large-scale application portal for consumer-grade AI. It believes that Apple's approximately 2.5 billion active devices form the basis for AI distribution, and it is estimated that about 20% of the world's population may use AI through Apple devices in the next few years. He further predicted that the commercialization of AI services and storage functions is expected to increase Apple's annual service revenue by about 15 billion US dollars in the next few years.
TD Cowen's $400 judgment focuses more on product pricing capabilities and hardware upgrades to support profits. In particular, it points out that the upward price adjustments for iPads, Macs, and future iPhones, as well as 2-nm chip upgrades, will help partially absorb cost pressure, and that folding screens provide new reasons for providing high-end switches. AI enhances the actual use value of devices, and commercialization of services extends the revenue contribution cycle for each user. This logic focuses on whether Apple can use product differentiation and user stickiness to transform technological upgrades into revenue and profit growth.