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Apple employees might not return to offices before June 2021

Tim Cook still wants workers ultimately to go back to offices, according to Bloomberg.

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Tim Cook, seen in 2019, reckons face-to-face collaboration is still vital.

James Martin/CNET

Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees on Thursday that most teams won't return to offices before June 2021, Bloomberg reported, as the world waits for coronavirus vaccines to become widely available.

Despite this, Cook wants Apple workers back in the office, reasoning that there's "no replacement for face-to-face collaboration" even though having employees working remotely has taught the Cupertino, California, company "a great deal."

But remote work posed particular challenges when it came to device design, Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio reportedly said, since so much of it is done in lab settings.

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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