Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia announced today that it will lay off 330 workers from its research and development staff, which CNET says is roughly equivalent to 2 percent of its global R&D workforce.

The company will lay off 230 workers from its Oulu, Finland site and 100 more from a site in Copenhagen. PC World reports that Nokia has already made staffing cuts this year, announcing a larger layoff of 1,700 employees in March.

Nokia says that it will still employ 17,000 people to work in research and development for various branches of the company’s operations, and will consider offering voluntary buyouts and severance packages. Nokia will negotiate these issues with the union that represents their R&D workforce.

CNET says that Nokia, though still the biggest producer of cell phones in the world, has seen its commanding lead in the handset market eroded by competition, particularly in the high end of the market. Apple recently surpassed Nokia as the most profitable cell phone maker in the world. Mobile management professionals are expected to note the company’s declining fortunes and structure expenditure accordingly.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Understanding Mobility Management News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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