The primary reasons for the shifts vary by division. But collectively, they reflect Apple’s efforts to transition from an iPhone-driven company into one where growth flows from services and potentially transformative technologies.    Crypto Crime - The Perfect Heist  

Leadership moves of the past few months include promoting artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea to the executive team; replacing departing retail chief Angela Ahrendts with head of human resources Deirdre O’Brien; and pushing out top Siri voice-assistant executive Bill Stasior.

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HOLLYWOOD PROGRAMMING

Apple has also trimmed 200 staffers from its autonomous-vehicle project, and is redirecting much of the engineering resources in its services business, led by Eddy Cue, into efforts around Hollywood programming.  Four Biotechs To Buy Today

“This is a sign the company is trying to get the formula right for the next decade,” said Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst and managing partner at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures. “Technology is evolving, and they need to continue to tweak their structure to be sure they’re on the right curve.”

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BECOME MEDIA MOGOLS

The competitive landscape could complicate Apple’s efforts to diversify beyond the iPhone. Media services like Netflix Inc. and Spotify Technology SA have a head start and more subscribers; Google’s autonomous-vehicle initiative has logged more miles on the road; and Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo speakers have put Alexa into millions of homes.

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Apple spent $14.24 billion on research and development last year, a 23% increase from the year prior. Though it continues to work on projects in the augmented reality, autonomous vehicle and health sectors, it hasn’t yet released a major new product in those areas. Sales of its latest gadgets—Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod—have been mixed, and none has offered the pricing power or volumes of the iPhone, one of the best-selling products in history. Papa Johns PZZA Surges On Restructure  

END OF I- PHONE ERA

Mr. Cook, who prides himself on his long-term management focus, has been anticipating the maturation of the smartphone industry since as early as 2010 and planning for how to grow as phone sales slow, former employees say. Apple this year stopped reporting the number of iPhones it sells, a move many observers interpreted as an end of the smartphone salad days.

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STREAMING MUSIC - APP SALES- MOBILE PAYMENTS

Though the iPhone still contributes about two-thirds of Apple sales, the company has encouraged investors to focus on a growing services business, which includes streaming-music subscriptions, app-store sales and mobile payments. Services are expected to top $50 billion in sales by fiscal 2020 and contribute more than about 60% of Apple’s total revenue growth over five years, according to Morgan Stanley , which estimates the iPhone fueled 85% of growth during the prior five years.

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The services business also is key to preserving iPhone loyalty. Just as Amazon has used media and music offerings to increase the value of Prime membership, Apple executives view its mobile payments, music service and coming video offering as ways to encourage current iPhone owners to buy future Apple handsets.

Apple has said it aims to pass 500 million paid subscriptions across its platform by 2020, up from 360 million now.

$1 BILLION CREATING ORIGIONAL SHOWS

To help reach the goal, Apple is spending more than $1 billion to create original shows this year starring Hollywood A-listers such as Reese Witherspoon. It has considered bundling video into a monthly subscription offering that would also include cloud storage, according to people familiar with the plans. The company also is in talks with major newspapers about offering a news service that would cost $10 a month. It has discussed bundling those services together into a single subscription along with iCloud storage for photos and files, a person familiar with the plan said.

HIRES SONY EXECUTIVES

Mr. Cue, who poached two top executives from Sony Pictures Television in 2017, has focused most of his engineers on the coming video offering, two of these people said. The company is pushing to announce the new offering at a media event scheduled for March 25 on its Apple Park campus, people familiar with the event said.

Apple is also expected to lean on its artificial-intelligence team to personalize the services on people’s devices. The company last year hired Mr. Giannandrea away from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, where he held a similar role incorporating AI into products like Gmail’s inbox app.

In December, shortly after presenting to Apple’s board, Mr. Giannandrea was promoted to the company’s executive team and quickly took over the AI division. He relieved Mr. Stasior from his responsibility overseeing Siri, Apple’s flagship AI product, according to people familiar with the change. Mr. Giannandrea has assumed that responsibility and is looking to improve Siri’s accuracy and performance, the people said. The Information earlier reported on Mr. Stasior’s status.

HIRES TESLAS TOP ENGINEER - AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

In August, Apple hired Tesla Inc.’s engineering chief Doug Field and gave him day-to-day responsibility for the company’s roughly 1,400-person autonomous-vehicle project, known as Project Titan. Last month, he cut the team by about 200 people, according to people familiar with the change, which was previously reported by CNBC.