Microsoft's Nokia Experiment Completed

Microsoft dismisses 1,350 Finnish employees and 500 more from other countries.

Cases on the front of mobile phones from Microsoft go no matter. The acquisition of the famous Nokia brand for $ 7.2 billion two years ago did not help the company - Windows Phone OS takes 0.7% of the entire smartphone market , and the business of producing mobile phones that do not belong to the [feature phone] class this month was sold to a division of Foxconn .

Last year, the company has already written off $ 7.6 billion in expenses and laid off 7,800 employees , and now the company has warned in its internal memorandum about the next impending layoffs and write-offs. 1350 employees of the company from Finland, and 500 people from other countries lose their jobs .
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The company also writes off another $ 950 million in losses. All of this, according to Terry Myerson, the executive director of the Windows and Devices group at Microsoft, is being done as part of “choosing the best organization of work” for the smartphone development unit.

Most of the Finnish employees used to work in Nokia’s mobile division. Now there will be only a few people in the departments of advanced development and sales. By purchasing a mobile unit of a Finnish company, Microsoft, along with it, recruited 25,000 people. Additional layoffs, completing the restructuring of the company, are expected before the end of this year.

Apparently, Microsoft has developed more realistic views on its capabilities in the smartphone market. As Myerson wrote in his memorandum, “we are scaling down, but not leaving the market!”. A week ago, the company had already subtly hinted that it could engage in the production of Lumia phones, writing that "we will continue to support and update existing Lumia phones and partner OEM phones, and develop new and excellent devices."

It is possible that now all the forces will be thrown on the development of new Surface Phone. However, when we see all these “new excellent devices”, it is unclear: the experiments with the Surface Phone have been going on for at least three years, and in the past were regarded as a backup plan in case of failure with Nokia. Well, the time has come for him.

At the same time, Nokia in the same month announced the transfer of intellectual property rights and brand to the newly formed company HMD global, which will produce and sell an assortment of smartphones and tablets running Android. The company will operate in Finland under the leadership of Nokia veteran Arto Nummela, who joined Microsoft after acquiring the Finnish company's mobile business division.

Foxconn is a trade name for Taiwanese firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Ltd.). The world's largest manufacturer of electronic components and finished products), mainly works under contracts with other companies, which, in turn, sell products under their own brands. Among the devices produced are BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Nokia and Wii U.