Nokia Drops 7000 Jobs To Save Cash

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Our own Kevin Schram recently brought us the word–like six days ago recent, too–that Apple recently took Nokia’s slot as the biggest phone manufacturer on Earth by revenue. And this news has brought with it a bit of fallout in the form of 7000 jobs lost.

Interestingly, that’s not what Nokia’s citing as reasons behind the cut–Nokia’s laying off fully 12 percent of its handset employees stemming from changes in their environment due to the Microsoft Windows Phone agreements, as well as their recent outsourcing of Symbian, according to reports.

This move gives Nokia a whole lot more cash to work with–an estimated $1.46 billion US–but comes with a substantial human cost.

Though there is some reason for hope: only about half of the layoffs (4000 of them, specifically) are actually layoffs. The remaining 3000 workers are instead being transferred to Accenture, who is now reportedly handling the Symbian software.

In an economic picture like the one we’re looking at now, no one wants to hear about layoffs. It’s going to be profoundly difficult for those folks to find new jobs, and our hearts go out to all of them. But still, when you’re rapidly losing ground, what else can you do? Nokia’s been falling behind for a long time, in terms of both actual sales and perceived quality. The Nokia N8 is a big help in reasserting credibility in that department, naturally, but can it help Nokia get back to where it was?

Obviously there’s still plenty of debate left as to whether or not the new alliance with Microsoft can help them recover their former position–debate that should be thoroughly indulged in down in the comments section below–but they’re clearly not taking their losses to Apple lying down. That’s a plus in the long term, even if the short term is looking a lot more disastrous for about 4000 people today.