The tech world isn't having a good year. Just months after HP, Sony and Yahoo announced large-scale layoffs, Nokia and Research in Motion are following suit and scaling back their respective workforces. The biggest cutbacks by far are at Nokia, where up to 10,000 workers will receive pink slips. RIM has been issuing layoffs at a slower pace; for the past several weeks, batches of 10 or more employees were let go. How do these former tech giants plan to bounce back?
Nokia plans to partner with Microsoft on a line of affordable smartphones. "We need to compete with Android aggressively," Nokia president and CEO Stephen Elop said in a conference call last week. "The low-end price point war is an important part of that." Elop added that the new handsets would specifically be cheaper than the Nokia Lumia 610, the company's current entry-level model.
At RIM, the focus will be on saving $1 billion by restructuring the company. Affected facets of the business include quality control, parts, operations and even a few senior executives, according to the Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for RIM confirmed yesterday that RIM had "reduced some positions as part of this program and may continue to do so as the company methodically works through a review of the business." RIM will also launch a new phone this year: its latest BlackBerry.
With this latest round of layoffs in mind, do you think the tech bubble is about to burst?
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