Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia said Wednesday it will cut 7,000 jobs worldwide through layoffs and outsourcing and shutter its Danish research and development site by the end of 2012.
About 4,000 of the layoffs, due by the end of 2012, would take place in Denmark, Finland and Britain, and the close of the R&D site would result in the loss of 950 jobs, Nokia said in a statement.
The downsizing is aimed at restructuring Nokia's global workforce and consolidating operations as the company strives to cut costs and catch up with its top rivals in the smartphone market.
Nokia said it wanted to reduce "Devices and Services non-IFRS operating expenses by 1 billion euros (1.45 billion U.S. dollars)" for the fiscal year 2013 compared to 2010.
It also plans to transfer 3,000 workers in China, Finland, India, Britain and the United States to Accenture PLC as it outsources Symbian platform operations to the global management-consulting firm, in a major shift of strategy.
The collaboration is prompted by Nokia switching its primary smartphone operating system from its own Symbian platform to one based on the Microsoft Windows Phone platform.
Accenture is expected to provide mobile software solutions based on the Windows Phone platform to Nokia, for its future smartphones.
"At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions," new CEO Stephen Elop said Wednesday.
The announcements came as Nokia, which has 13,000 employees in Finland but indirectly provides work for more than 20,000 people in Helsinki, had called workers for company briefings in several cities.
Elop said that none of the employees will lose their jobs this year, and that the personnel transfers would be made "over time."
Finland-based Nokia is among the world's biggest mobile and smartphone makers, with interests in telecommunications infrastructure, digital mapping, and mobile and navigation software.
However, it has found itself in stiff competition in recent years from smartphones operating on the Apple system and Google's Android platform.
Nokia has been the world's largest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year -- more than its three closest rivals combined. But its market share continues to fall, to 29 percent in this year's first quarter -- its lowest level since the late 1990s.
