I think this is more to do with scope rather than caution, although of course those are related.
Apple has a fairly finite set of offerings and they probably didn't feel the need (or maybe didn't have an opportunity to) rapidly grow their scope during the pandemic.
In contrast, Google and Amazon have broader scope and obviously much more of their scope had intersection with pandemic-driven opportunities.
To list some obvious examples - as people shifted to work from home, Google had the opportunity to establish gSuite as the place where such work happens. Amazon obviously had to opportunity of people having no interest to go into a store. Those are just two out of many many areas where both companies had more "surface" to engage than Apple did.
Did they over hire? Well, they had an opportunity and they went for it. If the size of the opportunity was misjudged, they could always shed some of the new size, as they are now doing.
Apple has a fairly finite set of offerings and they probably didn't feel the need (or maybe didn't have an opportunity to) rapidly grow their scope during the pandemic.
In contrast, Google and Amazon have broader scope and obviously much more of their scope had intersection with pandemic-driven opportunities.
To list some obvious examples - as people shifted to work from home, Google had the opportunity to establish gSuite as the place where such work happens. Amazon obviously had to opportunity of people having no interest to go into a store. Those are just two out of many many areas where both companies had more "surface" to engage than Apple did.
Did they over hire? Well, they had an opportunity and they went for it. If the size of the opportunity was misjudged, they could always shed some of the new size, as they are now doing.