Motorola to cut 50% of handset workforce
By Nick Wood , Total Telecom
13 January 2009
Vendor plans to launch just 12 devices in 2009, according to media reports; will focus on Android-based smartphones.
Motorola this week will announce a large round of job cuts at its struggling mobile devices division that could amount to 50% of its workforce.
According to a report by Phone Scoop, the handset maker plans to release just 12 new mobile phones per year going forward, and its only smartphones will use Google's Android platform. The report also cited a source familiar with the situation as saying that Motorola will not hire a booth at the CTIA wireless trade show in Las Vegas in April. However, the event's Website on Tuesday still listed the company as an exhibitor. Motorola declined to comment on the report. However, the vendor's co-CEO Greg Brown said in October that he planned to cut another 3,000 jobs, which would drive savings of around $800 million in 2009. Motorola has cut more than 10,000 positions since January 2007. The company had aimed to spin off its mobile division by the third quarter of 2009, but its plans were put on hold by the unit's CEO Sanjay Jha in October. Jha, who was poached from Qualcomm in August, was reported at the time to have said that Motorola's problems were bigger than he first thought, that the company used too many software platforms, and that more aggressive steps to streamline the handset division were needed. Meanwhile, Motorola unveiled only a limited line-up of new devices at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. According to Dow Jones Newswires, the vendor may only have a small range of new products available in the first half of the year.
