Illinois-based mobile phone maker Motorola is rumoured to be scaling back its handset division through job cuts and a reduction in the number of phones it will release this year.
Mobile phone news site, Phone Scoop, reports that the company could be cutting up to 50 per cent of its entire handset operation. In addition, it is likely to bring down the number of new phones it releases to just a dozen annually and all its future smartphones are reported to be based on Google's Android platform only - a move that's sure to devastate Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Nokia's Symbian operating systems.
What's more, Phone Scoop suggests that Motorola may have to withdraw its booth from the CTIA Wireless conference in spring, an event that's widely recognised as the most comprehensive trade show in the wireless industry. The site claims to have received the information from an unnamed source at Motorola, though the company has refused to officially comment so far.
The news comes a month after Motorola announced that it was laying off 400 of its staff, in addition to the 1500 job cuts announced in October last year. In December, the company's co-CEOs, Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha, both stated that they would take a 25 per cent decrease in their base salaries and forego any cash bonuses received in 2008, steps they described as "difficult but necessary".
The news that Motorola's smartphone operations will be focussing more exclusively on its Android handset development comes shortly after Telstra executives claimed that HTC is working on a successor to the hugely successful G1. Last month, Samsung also announced that it would launch an Android phone in Q2 2009.
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