Nokia on Thursday announced plans to lay off 3,500 additional workers over the next year in locations around the world, including Malvern, Pennsylvania here in the United States.
The company will cut about 1,300 jobs in its location and commerce division, which handles mapping and location-based services like Navteq. Those jobs can now be handled via automation, the company said. Nokia will shut down operations in Bonn, Germany and Malvern, Pennsylvania and concentrate all location and commerce work in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, and other supporting sites.
Most of the layoffs, or about 2,200 people, will occur in Romania, where Nokia plans to shut down its manufacturing plant in Cluj at the end of the year. The company said its high-volume Asian factories "provide greater scale and proximity benefits."
Nokia also said it will shift its manufacturing focus in Salo, Finland, Komarom, Hungary, and Reynosa, Mexico from smartphones to software and sales. That will result in layoffs next year, but the company does not yet known how many people will be affected.
"We are seeing solid progress against our strategy, and with these planned changes we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger," Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO, said in a statement. "We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward."
Back in April, Nokia announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs and outsource its Symbian development team to Accenture.
Nokia has been in a state of flux this year. In February, it announced plans to partner with Microsoft for the production of Windows Phone 7 devices, the first of which, codenamed "Sea Ray," is expected to hit stores by year's end. That means the company is shifting its focus away from Symbian and MeeGo; earlier this week, Nokia shipped the N9 (above), its first and possibly last MeeGo device. In August, Nokia also unveiled three Symbian devices, but it's unclear when, if ever, they will hit the United States.
According to the Wall Street Journal, however, Nokia is prepping a Linux-based operating system known as Meltemi for low-end phones, but Nokia has not yet made any announcements.