Nokia Corp. (NOK) said Friday it will lay off up to 330 people from its R&D facilities in Finland and Denmark.
The change is necessary “to be in line with the company’s focused portfolio of future products,” Nokia said in a press release. In other words, as Nokia starts to revive its brand with higher-end smartphones, it needs fewer people. Up to 230 workers at the Oulu site in Finland and another 100 at the Copenhagen location will lose their positions. The number amounts to 2 percent of Nokia’s R&D workforce.
Nokia will try to find jobs in other parts of the company for the affected workers, but executives may have to resort to voluntary layoffs, too.
A GigaOM blogger called the job cuts a small move that’s long overdue to get Nokia back into the handset game.
“Nokia may feel a pinch as it severs the R&D personnel, but the company will surely continue to innovate with its Maemo OS and S60 devices,” wrote Colin Gibbs. “And it’s not like innovation has ever been a problem for Nokia — its struggles since the emergence of the iPhone have stemmed from its aging Symbian platform, its unwillingness to bow to U.S. carriers and an utter lack of affordable, iconic devices. Shifting its focus toward higher-end handsets that produce better margins will be a step in the right direction.”
Nokia has laid off more than 2,000 employees this year. The company’s stock was trading lower, down 2.35 percent at $13.29 a little before 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
RBC Capital Markets Managing Director – Mark Sue gives his take on Nokia’s prospects, “We’re looking for constructive comments at Nokia’s analyst day to be held in Helsinki on December 3rd. With improving demand despite the choppy environment, we’re increasing our 4Q09 unit forecast for Nokia from 120M units to 122M, a +12% QoQ increase. Supply constraints may limit additional unit upside as components remain tight across the chain. The incremental units and Nokia’s market share of 38% implies that global mobile device units may finish the year down approximately -6% YoY on a sell-in basis.
“Nokia is enjoying decent demand for its 5800 Touch and mid-tier N series and while early, we estimate ASPs may be tracking flat sequentially at EUR62. Nokia will spend much time at its capital markets day discussing two separate segments to improve operations. On the volume product side, we look for Nokia to discuss plans to further leverage its scale and distribution to improve margins on feature phones. More importantly, on the solutions side, Nokia may articulate a message to improve its smartphone market share as it expands its ecosystem to improve the end user experience.”
Sue continued, “Nokia’s global smartphone market share has slid from 41% early this year to ~39%. We’re not expecting any major product launches at Nokia’s CMD but rather a discussion of corrective action to improve execution on the smartphone side. Nokia may reiterate its commitment to the Symbian OS while also making investments in its Linux based Maemo OS for the high-end.”
Sue added, “Separately, while previously not interested in the Nortel Metro Ethernet assets, Nokia Siemens is now partnering with One Equity Partners to bid this Friday morning. At the moment, we believe Ciena and Nokia Siemens will be the only likely bidders. Ciena’s initial bid is $521M.”
Sue concluded, “While Nokia’s portfolio remains challenged relative to Apple and others, we don’t believe the rate of share loss is worsening. With stabilizing share and incrementally better units, Nokia’s shares may display some relative outperformance as we finish the year. Furthermore mobile devices operating margins are expected to rebound sequentially from 11.4% to ~12.8% as Nokia works on reducing variable expenses. Nokia’s shares are currently trading at 0.7x our CY10 revenue estimate and 13x our CY10 EPS estimate.”
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Do you want to unlock your GSM phone and so you can use it in other carrier or countries? Here is how to do it.
Step 1
If you are still using the phone with your current carrier, call your carrier and explain to them that you are traveling and plan to use your device on another carrier outside of the country. They will provide you with the unlock sequence, often referred to as the unlock code.
Step 2
Enter the provided unlock code exactly as instructed by the wireless representative. Typically, this code will involve pressing a sequence of numbers and “softkeys” on your GSM phone. The codes will vary based on the model of phone being unlocked.
Step 3
Or download software to generate the unlocking code. Software is available on some websites for free and some pay websites that also offer support if things go wrong.
For example:
www.FreeYourCellphone.com
www.GSMLiberty.com
Step 4
Find the Serial number of the cell phone, also known as your IMEI number. This can be done by removing the back of your cell phone and looking underneath the battery.
Step 5
Find your device model on the unlocked code site. Typically, devices will be arranged by manufacturer and then by the model type. You need to find your exact model.
Step 6
Follow the direction to unlock your GSM phone. In order to unlock your phone you generally need to enter only one code. Start with the first one. If your phone is not unlocked by typing the first code (MCC+MNC), use code “7″ (Multilock).
Step 7
Once you have finished entering a code that works you should see a message that says “SIM is not restricted” or “Restriction off” message depending on your model.
Insert a SIM card from another provider into your Motorola phone and test whether the signal for the new provider appears. If you receive a signal, you are now ready to use your device on other GSM providers.
Clyde Wilkinson