Nokia to cut 4000 jobs as smartphones manufacturing moves to Asia

Birmingham Star (ANI) Thursday 9th February, 2012

One of the world's largest mobile phone makers, Nokia, is planning to cut 4000 factory jobs in Europe as it shifts the assembly of smartphones to Asia.

The company said in a statement that jobs would be lost at plants in Finland, Mexico and Hungary this year as part of a reorganisation of its smartphone manufacturing operations.

The company, however, said that the factories would not close, The Telegraph reports.

"Shifting device assembly to Asia is targeted at improving our time to market," the paper quoted Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president for Markets, as saying.

"By working more closely with our suppliers, we believe that we will be able to introduce innovations into the market more quickly and ultimately be more competitive," Savander added.

The Finland-based mobile manufacturer is struggling to regain its former position as the world's biggest mobile manufacturer after losing ground to Apple's iPhones and smartphones running on Google's Android operating system.

In January, Nokia reported widening fourth-quarter net losses of 1.07billion Euros, against a 745 million Euros profit in same period of 2010, as its new Windows-based smartphones failed to offset the decline in sales of its traditional handsets, and revenues slumped by 21percent. (ANI)