Nokia's transition of Symbian to Windows 7 Phone spelt not only a massive job cut of 7,000 employees worldwide, but also the closure of its research and development site in White Plains, New York with a certain, the expected flux in employment in the rest of the their R & D sites worldwide.
Largely as predicted, Nokia has announced 4000 jobs are being axed and a further 3000 put out by the end of 2012 as the Finnish company looks to restructure its business ready for Windows Phone 7.The restrictions, which will see the roles with a focus on older software for Symbian shift to consultants firm Accenture, will affect 12 percent of its phone unit workforce. Reports suggest Nokia is looking to cut € 1000000000 (1.46 billion U.S. dollars) from its costs. Clarity and cut-back nokia confirmed that most of the cuts will be made to its workforce in Denmark, Finland and the UK. At Nokia, we have new clarity about our way forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disturbances, said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement. But with this new focus, we will face reductions in the workforce.
This is all part of the effort they must take to prepare for the exclusive use of the Windows Phone 7 on all Nokia phones.
Down with the R&DThe move is billed as a response to what outsiders have long gone as excessive research and development, mainly as a result of Nokia's leading role in Symbian.
The complete change over is expected to take years as they phase out of the Symbian handset.
By handing control over to Accenture, the firm will be able to concentrate its operations on Windows 7 Phone, maintained itself and is run by Microsoft.
Walked out on the smartphone hype that gripped rivals to take the opportunity and capitalized on it, Nokia is trying to stage a comeback with chalking up a partnership agreement with Microsoft that finally ended last week.
Nokia's R & D costs will autumn as a result, but so will the number of jobs in the sector.
Nokia has a single digit market share in the USA and has been on a decline for the past few years.
Nokia itself, but claims it only certain areas of R&D will be cut back, adding that other sites will actually \expand \\ u0026quot;.
A battle with Finland that contains an 8% unemployment, Nokia has also made a deal with outsourcer Accenture to take over the development and future support for Symbian, including providing employment for 3,000 of those laid off, most of whom had worked with Symbian.
We offer those who lose their jobs a number of options, from individual re-employment support and re-training to make investments to promote innovation and works with many partners to create new opportunities, Elop ended.
Accenture says that 3,000 employees will work on Symbian for some time, before being retrained and redeployed.
[Source: Nokia].
Investors applaud Nokia's efforts to transfer some of the workers, a procedure that will cost the company less than a flat-out layoff that require paying out severance packages.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has admitted that it was a difficult decision, to be officialized when the company is finished talks with labour representatives.
The rest of the 4,000 workers are to remain on their salary for the remainder of 2011.
How many will remain in 2012 has not been specified.
The job cuts, representing about 12% of its total phone unit workforce is seen to save the Company 1 billion euros (1400 million USD) at the end of 2012 together with the Microsoft agreement.
The latest layoffs are not the biggest set of Nokia, the company known for cutting out 9,000 of its employees when they began their telecommunications Nokia Siemens Network.
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