Microsoft plans new round of major job cuts amid poor smartphone sales

[midian182]

Microsoft plans to announce a new round of layoffs as early as Wednesday in an effort to reduce costs. The latest cuts are in addition to the 18,000 jobs the company said it planned to eliminate a year ago.

The majority of layoffs are expected to affect Microsoft’s struggling smartphone business. Windows phones currently make up only 2.7 percent of the smartphone market, despite the company’s acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit last year in a $7.2 billion deal.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced in July last year that the company would be slashing 18,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, in order to ‘realign’ its staff. 12,500 of these cuts were to come from the 30,000 employees Microsoft inherited when it acquired Nokia.

Microsoft has also been selling off parts of its business recently. In June, the company said it was selling its online display advertising division to AOL, an area where it once had high hopes.

In a company email sent by Satya Nadella last month that was intended to rally employees for the coming year, the CEO also warned that Microsoft would need to “make some tough choices in areas where things are not working and solve hard problems in ways that drive customer value.”

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https://www.techspot.com/news/61283-microsoft-plans-new-round-major-job-cuts-amid.html

 

[Guest]

It's the economy stupid.
Or is it, the "stupid economy"?

 

[9Nails]

Seems extreme. A very expensive lesson to learn. I'd guess several developers are angrily typing at their keyboards about now. I'm wondering why they didn't just sell off the phone division instead of scraping it?

 

[tipstir]

I had to go back Android Windows 8.1 phone kept locking up and even upgraded to a better Windows 8.1 phone same issue. So Android running 5.x latest but I had wish MS would market the Windows Phone a lot better than they did.

 

[DelJo63]

I've had Nokia phones for years because they understood human factors and made the device intuitive and customizable. I feared what MS would do to that - - and sure enough, imo they scrambled the UI and of all things, went with the Tiled look that was such a failure in Win/8.

And someone at MS expected financial success????

 

[Teko03]

Seems extreme. A very expensive lesson to learn. I'd guess several developers are angrily typing at their keyboards about now. I'm wondering why they didn't just sell off the phone division instead of scraping it?

The phone division isn't being scraped, Microsoft is still very much committed to building more Lumia branded Windows Mobile (formerly Windows Phone) hardware. This cut includes some 7,800 jobs, which is part of the 18,000 (not all Nokia employees) Microsoft planned to cut since purchasing Nokia's Devices & Services division, which included 30,000 Nokia employees.

 

[Peter Farkas]

Honestly I am waiting for the day when I can switch from my iPhone to a competitive Microsoft Lumia. Apple is not an option for me as I love windows and got used to it in the last 20+ years. Wonder when iTunes will be available on Lumias. That's what I want for Christmas!

ps: we are so close to skynet )

 

[Squid Surprise]

You want to switch from your iPhone... but Apple isn't an option? You ARE aware your iPhone is made by Apple, right?

I DO wish that MS would make some awesome phones as it would be nice to run the same OS on my PC/tablet/phone...

My PC HAS to be Windows - I like games and my favourites are for Windows..the Surface is very close to being better than an iPad (I still want faster, cheaper and lighter - but it's getting there)... but the iPhone is still vastly superior to anything MS produces...

 

[Jibberish18]

Was buying Nokia a bad idea? Sure. Did Microsoft handle the purchase correctly? I don't think so. They paid all that money and did what with it? We did not see any great looking or great functioning phones. We did not see any amazing giant sensor Carl Zeiss camera and lenses. All we see were a handful of cheap Windows Phone that were designed to try and penetrate the foreign markets as well as low cost markets. Did they penetrate? Probably not by much. I'm sure they may get something out of it but none of it made sense. Hell they didn't even get Navteq if I remember correctly. Windows Phone was and still is if you ask me one of the coolest Operating Systems and you'd figure after purchasing the ONE company who was making phones for your OS exclusively you'd do something cool with the company but none cool was done.

 

[Peter Farkas]

You want to switch from your iPhone... but Apple isn't an option? You ARE aware your iPhone is made by Apple, right?

I DO wish that MS would make some awesome phones as it would be nice to run the same OS on my PC/tablet/phone...

My PC HAS to be Windows - I like games and my favourites are for Windows..the Surface is very close to being better than an iPad (I still want faster, cheaper and lighter - but it's getting there)... but the iPhone is still vastly superior to anything MS produces...

Sorry I meant the same what you did, just didn't express myself properly due to a shitty jetlag I am having now...

 

[Guest]

went with the Tiled look that was such a failure in Win/8

You got that backwards. The tiled interface was introduced in Windows Phone 7, two years before Windows 8 was released. Windows 8 adopted Windows Phone's interface, not the other way around.
And back then, the tiled interface of Windows Phone was a huge critical success, compared to the skeuomorphic mess that were Android and iOS then (search for reviews of the Lumia 800). It was also responsible for starting the moved to flatter, non-skeuomorphic designs across all major OSes, which was a huge step in the right direction in terms of visual and interface design.
The fullscreen tiled interface wasn't a sucess on a desktop operating system because it indeed isn't ideal for use there, with a mouse. But in mobile platforms it was a very good proposition.
Also, let's be clear, Windows Phone never caught on because of lack of apps, NOT due to anything interface-related.