As Research In Motion Ltd. cuts jobs
to meet a fiscal year-end deadline, Motorola Mobility, Inc. has
announced 4,000 new layoffs, the latest casualties of Samsung and
Apple’s growing dominance of the smartphone market.
The cellular handset unit of Google Inc. said Monday it will eliminate about a fifth of its worldwide workforce, with two-thirds of the reductions in the United States. It also said it will close a third of its offices.
Motorola said it plans to narrow its lineup of phones from its current 27 and will ditch simple devices to focus on the U.S. market with higher end offerings that sport superior battery and camera performance, movement detection sensors and other artificial intelligence features.
Slow to adapt to digital technologies after holding a commanding lead in the analog cellphone market, Motorola was acquired by search leader Google Inc. in 2011.
Motorola’s handset division regained some lost ground with adoption of Google’s Android operating system but has been hurt by the iPhone in the U.S. and has posted losses in 14 of the past 16 quarters.
Google said it intends to make the Motorola unit profitable, but warned that revenue will remain under pressure.
Motorola’s woes mirror those of several smartphone makers including Waterloo-based Research In Motion Ltd. that have lost business to Apple and Samsung, which together account about half of all smartphone sales and at least 90 per cent of industry profits.
RIM, Nokia, LG and Sony all reported handset unit loses in their most recent quarter with only a handful of Asia-based manufacturers managing to make money on handsets at the lower-priced end of the market.
Research In Motion has announced 5,000 workers or about 30 per cent of its workforce will be let go by the end of March and has commenced a strategic review of its operations that could include sales of business assets to reduce costs.
RIM spokesman Nick Manning said more information on layoffs may be forthcoming during the BlackBerry maker’s late September earnings call as part of a disclosure of financial charges related to the cuts.
The company could also report any material asset sales spurred by the review, such as a divestiture of its cloud services unit NewBay, which RIM acquired for about $100 million last year.
“I think the earnings call is a line in the sand for clarifying what’s going on,” Manning said.
He said significant job cuts have been taking place at RIM’s Waterloo campus and elsewhere in recent weeks and will likely continue into 2013.
The company, trying to find $1 billion in annual operating cost savings, will reportedly have lowered expenses by $300 million a year once the layoffs are complete.
RIM has reduced its manufacturing suppliers, a rationalization that could continue, and might exit lines of business or entire geographical regions.
The company plans to limit its smartphone offerings to a few new BB10 devices and has said the BB10 operating system will soon be ready to be licensed to any interested companies.
Manning would not comment on whether any of RIM’s valuable patent assets are on the table as part the cost-saving review that is being carried out by investment banks.
Ontario’s Liberal government, meanwhile, says it is helping laid-off technology workers in Waterloo get the advice, training and support they need to “continue their careers in the province.”
The province in a statement said it is partnering with tech company lobbying organization Communitech, the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and RIM to help workers find new jobs in the technology sector in the region.
Source from：Casualties continue to pile up in phone wars
The cellular handset unit of Google Inc. said Monday it will eliminate about a fifth of its worldwide workforce, with two-thirds of the reductions in the United States. It also said it will close a third of its offices.
Motorola said it plans to narrow its lineup of phones from its current 27 and will ditch simple devices to focus on the U.S. market with higher end offerings that sport superior battery and camera performance, movement detection sensors and other artificial intelligence features.
Slow to adapt to digital technologies after holding a commanding lead in the analog cellphone market, Motorola was acquired by search leader Google Inc. in 2011.
Motorola’s handset division regained some lost ground with adoption of Google’s Android operating system but has been hurt by the iPhone in the U.S. and has posted losses in 14 of the past 16 quarters.
Google said it intends to make the Motorola unit profitable, but warned that revenue will remain under pressure.
Motorola’s woes mirror those of several smartphone makers including Waterloo-based Research In Motion Ltd. that have lost business to Apple and Samsung, which together account about half of all smartphone sales and at least 90 per cent of industry profits.
RIM, Nokia, LG and Sony all reported handset unit loses in their most recent quarter with only a handful of Asia-based manufacturers managing to make money on handsets at the lower-priced end of the market.
Research In Motion has announced 5,000 workers or about 30 per cent of its workforce will be let go by the end of March and has commenced a strategic review of its operations that could include sales of business assets to reduce costs.
RIM spokesman Nick Manning said more information on layoffs may be forthcoming during the BlackBerry maker’s late September earnings call as part of a disclosure of financial charges related to the cuts.
The company could also report any material asset sales spurred by the review, such as a divestiture of its cloud services unit NewBay, which RIM acquired for about $100 million last year.
“I think the earnings call is a line in the sand for clarifying what’s going on,” Manning said.
He said significant job cuts have been taking place at RIM’s Waterloo campus and elsewhere in recent weeks and will likely continue into 2013.
The company, trying to find $1 billion in annual operating cost savings, will reportedly have lowered expenses by $300 million a year once the layoffs are complete.
RIM has reduced its manufacturing suppliers, a rationalization that could continue, and might exit lines of business or entire geographical regions.
The company plans to limit its smartphone offerings to a few new BB10 devices and has said the BB10 operating system will soon be ready to be licensed to any interested companies.
Manning would not comment on whether any of RIM’s valuable patent assets are on the table as part the cost-saving review that is being carried out by investment banks.
Ontario’s Liberal government, meanwhile, says it is helping laid-off technology workers in Waterloo get the advice, training and support they need to “continue their careers in the province.”
The province in a statement said it is partnering with tech company lobbying organization Communitech, the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and RIM to help workers find new jobs in the technology sector in the region.
Source from：Casualties continue to pile up in phone wars
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