Nokia Consolidating Locations, Laying Off 3500 More Employees

angry tapir writes with an excerpt from a Techworld article: "Nokia is planning to lay off an additional 3,500 employees, as the company continues to restructure after announcing its decision to focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. The affected employees work in manufacturing, location and commerce, and supporting functions."

Re:typical, unfortunately.

[ackthpt]

From the article:

The affected employees work in manufacturing, location and commerce, and supporting functions, Nokia said on Thursday.

Unfortunately, it seems like the typical cut for a company in troubled straits.

I really hope they make an awesome comeback on Windows Mobile. I loved their phones and would love to go back. Still wish they went Android, though.

Damning words:

Nokia‘s new superphones will offer a superior user interface and a better, cloud-enabled experience than its chief competitors, the company’s top U.S executive told VentureBeat.

The reliance by Apple and Android phones on the “app” as the central metaphor is “outdated,” he said.

The rest of what he said [venturebeat.com]

He doesn't get it. The board should sack him now and save time.

Er, what?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Nokia is planning to lay off an additional 3,500 employees, as the company continues to restructure after announcing its decision to focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.

So they are preemptively firing people based on their expectations of how well the Windows Phones are going to sell?

Some perspective?

[airfoobar]

Nokia has over 130,000 employees. Generally, layoffs are not a good sign for a company, however in this case they were expected since they are making major changes to their product line. Is there really a story here? Honest question.

Explanations and reflection

[Anonymous Coward]

I am one of the affected employees.

Of the 3,500 people, 2,200 is the factory in Romania; the production there will be moved closer to the market in Asia. The rest 1,300 is mostly Location & Commerce, which is basically Navteq and the former ex-Services/Solutions/Software division joined.

This change has relatively little to do with the decision to go with WP7, much as people here like to bash that (and I love MeeGo myself). Even if the choice had been MeeGo instead of WP7, I suspect these layoffs would've been done anyway, because they're part of the streamlining strategy announced in April 2011. At the same time as people are getting laid of, some of the mentioned big sites are actually hiring a little (mostly internal transfers of course, I could probably find a position if I was willing to move to another country).

And yes, it's a painful result of mis-management, but the underlying reasons are far older than the 1 year the current CEO has been around... Not that I didn't wish and hope there was another way found to fix things (maybe there was, but it was not chosen, because it would've been less effective and more expensive - this is just me speculating). At least in Finland and Germany the job situation is not that bad, in Romania I can't imagine how it will be when one town suddenly gets that many unemployed people at once.