14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest news on the web, Motorola has announced that it would lay off 77 employees from its Plantation facility in Florida by the end of the first quarter of the year. Moreover, it seems that “The company said it will no longer conduct new Windows mobile development at the facility,” reports the South Florida Business Journal.
It is still unclear whether the layoffs are part of the already announced 4,000 job cuts the mobile phone maker announced that it would operate this year. As already reported, the company stated that around 3,000 of the positions it planned to reduce were from its mobile device unit.
The newly-announced job cuts come in line with previous rumors that the company might ditch Windows Mobile development while focusing on Google's Android platform. Although the phone manufacturer denied planning such a move, the fact that it is closing the Florida facility seems to rather confirm it.
On the other hand, Motorola might not be leaving the Windows Mobile area entirely, or even at all. As many of you might already know, the company has recently opened an office in Seattle, and it was suggested that the development on Windows Mobile would move into that facility. The relationship between the big M and WinMo might not approach its end after all, although there are not too many details on the company's intentions at the moment.
The mobile phone manufacturer hasn't had a great fourth quarter of last year, it seems. Preliminary results show it as expecting sales of around $7.0 to $7.2 billion. Some voices over the web suggested that today's layoffs were just a part of the previously-announced ones, which were driven by the global economic downturn. Motorola will officially announce the quarterly results on February 3rd.