Motorola to lay off approx 50% of handset operation; only make Android Smartphones

[mark925]

http://www2.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=3804

Phone Scoop has learned that Motorola's handset division is expecting a large round of layoffs as soon as this week, according to someone familiar with Motorola's plans. The layoffs are confirmed to be significant and may amount to 50% of the entire handset operation. Motorola's set top box, networking equipment, and enterprise device businesses would not be affected. Phone Scoop has also learned that Motorola is not planning to have a booth at the CTIA Wireless trade show in April, which is the biggest wireless event in the U.S. Lastly, Motorola is prepared to trim the number of new phones it brings to market down to just a dozen per year, and the only smartphones it will produce will be based on Google's Android platform.

[DaYuMu6ft7]

WOW!

Companies are really trimming the fat, I feel bad for these people.

The unemployment office's are full of laid off folks knocking on the door.

[GasBot]

I would call 50% layoffs a bloodbath, not trimming the fat. Moto HQ is in Schaumburg, IL . . . not too far away from where I live

Exactly, and in my home town.

Honestly though, Motorola has had this coming for a while. Their last successful product was the Razr and that thing has been played out for quite a while. I'm happy to see that they're going to go exclusively with android on their smart phones. I always thought they had decent hardware, with horrendous software holding it back. Maybe now that'll change and make them a contender again.

[hondamx525]

The good news from that article is that hopefully some nice android devices come out and boost their sales.

[Stericson]

my former company laid off 80%...and I was one of them... it's all good though, gotta better job.

[AndroidBoy323]

HTC needs to do the same thing and ditch WM for Android that would be a god send lol :-)

[xdavidn88]

Thank God I have a job that is like lay-off impossible.

[JCollum]

This has been on the way for a long time. Moto gained huge market share with the RAZR and pissed it away with a bunch of half-baked phones over the next 3 years. Capitalism is a bitch.

So this has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with Moto making bad hardware choices.

The good news is that they'll develop an Android phone, since software was their weak point if you ask me. Every time I tried to use one it was like whaaa? what's with this phone?