According to the latest news on the web, Motorola is preparing a large number of layoffs as soon as this week. It seems that sources familiar with the company's plans have stated that the handset division will suffer a massive workforce reduction, as nearly 50 percent of the employees might be given the pink slip. Knowing this, it seems that the financial turmoil has affected the mobile phone maker harder than expected.

The company is reported to plan on keeping all the people from its set top box, networking equipment, and enterprise device businesses. As the handset division could be dropped to only half of its personal, the company is rumored to plan on releasing only twelve phones per year. Moreover, it seems that the focus will be placed on smartphones based on Google's Android platform, while other similar devices are expected to be left aside.

Motorola has been reported a few times before to experience financial difficulties. Only a couple of weeks ago, we learned that the company planned on sending home around 3000 employees, 2000 of whom were stated to be from the mobile department. In addition to this, the phone maker was also reported to be planning major cutbacks and to have suspended the pension plans, as a means of saving more money.

Back then, the company was said to plan on reducing workforce in areas where competition was rather loose. And, while it had some hard times making users go for its handsets, it seems that it intended to focus more on Android devices and reduce the number of releases. The company was on the verge of developing its own Symbian OS, yet those plans have either been postponed or dropped.

We're waiting for Motorola's official announcement regarding the reported wave of layoffs, and, hopefully, we'll also get more details on its future plans on the smartphone market, so stay tuned to learn the news.