Apple ramps up hiring for its upcoming video streaming service
Apple’s very own version of Netflix may be right around the corner.
Over the last few weeks, Apple has been posted a number of new job listings related to its long-rumored subscription video-streaming service.
A peak of 42 openings related to the company’s "Interactive Media Group" (IMG) were listed in mid-January, according to data monitoring firm Thinknum. IMG looks to be the division within Apple responsible for developing the streaming service.
“Our team is responsible for implementing software services around linear audiovisual media,” says a description of the IMG team on Apple’s job listing. “This includes local media playback, video-on-demand and live streaming of multimedia content. Our media engine is active across Apple products such as Safari, iTunes, Photos, Music, TV on iOS and macOS as well as 3rd party applications.”
Thinknum points out that there are a total of 8 listings with the word “streaming” specifically in the job title, 7 of them being for engineers. Apple is currently recruiting for positions such as Media Streaming Engineer, Video Streaming Software Quality Engineer, and Streaming Interactive Media Engineer. The one non-engineer position is for a Manager (AVCN) AV/VC and Internal Streaming.
"Apple's Interactive Media Group (IMG) is looking for a dedicated and hardworking engineer to join our streaming media playback team,” reads the Media Engineer position. “This technology powers the streaming media experiences on all of Apple’s platforms (iPhones/iPads, Apple TV, and macOS) by building on core technologies and frameworks such as Core Media, AVFoundation."
In recent months, Apple has been pushing forward with its pivot from a hardware company to a services company.
The iPhone maker has argued that sales of its devices no longer accurately portray just how well the company is doing. Apple’s argument is that so many people already own iPhones and iPads, that the number paid subscriptions to its services is much more indicative of the company’s success. For example, the company boasts that its Apple Music subscription service currently has 56 million users. Apple’s plan to focus on services may even lead to a rumored Netflix-like video game subscription service.
A report earlier this week said that we may seen Apple’s video streaming Netflix competitor as earlier as April. While there is no official launch date for the service, Apple’s streaming-related hiring spree sure points to it being on the way sooner rather than later.
