Nokia To Launch Vietnam Factory, Hire 10,000 Workers
Finnish cell phone maker Nokia has been watching over the years as its mobile market share continues to dwindle thanks to mobile operating systems offered by Apple and Google. Now in an attempt to turn around the company’s fortunes Nokia has partnered with Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 OS while firing up to 3,000 workers. In March 2012 Nokia finished layoff talks with workers at its Salo, Finland plant, those talks led to 1,000 workers losing their jobs. Nokia began its restructuring plan which includes massive layoffs under the leadership of new CEO Stephen Elop.
While 3,000 people around the world will soon lose their jobs the company plans to hire 10,000 new workers at cut rate pay.
According to Vietnamese news organization BaoMoi Nokia will spend $300 million to build a new factory in the country and that factory will hire approximately 10,000 employees. The Vietnamese news organization quotes Nokia EVP of Markets Niklas Savander who revealed:
“Shifting device assembly to Asia is targeted at improving our time to market. 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.”
Nokia is expected to hold a press conference on April 23 to discuss the new plant. When finally up and running Nokia expects the Vietnamese plant to produce upwards of 45 million handsets per year by 2014.
Whether Nokia will choose to focus the factories efforts on mobile phones or smartphones is not yet known, while Nokia has struggled to grab marketshare with its Symbian operating system the company’s shift to the Windows Phone OS could be a big boost for the organization.
Nokia isn’t the only tech giant struggling with reduced sales, Sony in April announced plans to scale back its Japanese workforce while cutting 10,000 jobs globally.
In the meantime Samsung Vice Chairman and CEO, Choi Gee-sung claimed in January that his company would outsell Nokia in the smartphone market during the 2012 fiscal year.
