By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Nokia announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs from its workforce in order to cut costs and try to turn the company around. Included in the reductions is Nokia's R&D facility located in Burnaby, British Columbia.
"This is a very sad day for the Nokia workers and their families," said New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart (Burnaby-Douglas) in a report from the Burnaby NewsLeader , the Opposition critic for science and technology, in a press release. "I hope we can find some way to keep them here in Burnaby. We really need these talented people to help our growing technology sector flourish."
"These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength," said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO, in a press release.
Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop"We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly,"
The company will also close its research and development facility in Ulm, Germany, and its manufacturing facility in Salo, Finland.
Last April, Nokia revealed the company's net sales decreased by 29 per cent over the same period year over year. Net sales were plumetted 52 per cent for smart devices and down 32 per cent for mobile phones.
Nokia's struggles include its dminishing market share in the wake of the popularity of Apple's iPhone and various Google Android devices. The once dominant Symbian operating system was sophisticated enough for features phones but not as desirable as the new smartphone OS's and their vast app software libraries.
Nokia teamed up with Microsoft last year in order to back the Windows Phone initiative. Nokia has released around four models of Windows Phone devices including the flagship Nokia Lumia 900 and the Lumia 800. It is now just a phone hardware maker for Windows even as the continue to push out new Nokia Symbian devices.
A report from AppleInsider's Katie Marsal notes, "Though Nokia lost $1.7 billion selling mobile device last quarter, it earned $600 million from Apple in a patent licensing dispute resolution. That means Nokia made more from Apple's iPhone last quarter than it did from its own Lumia handset running Windows Phone 7."
Sources: Nokia, BurnabyNow, AppleInsider