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Nokia Transfers 3000 Symbian Devs To Accenture, Dumps Another 4000

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This was bound to happen. After relegating MeeGo to ‘experimentation’ level and with Symbian playing second fiddle to Windows Phone, Nokia today transferred around 3000 Symbian developers and dumped another 4000. It’s being called re-organisation that should, hopefully, reduce the time gap between planning, acting on it, and trying to make a mark.

Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with more than 215,000 employees serving clients in more than 120 countries, will be taking on approximately 3,000 Nokia employees to support the continued delivery of Symbian software development and support services.

Finetuning from all the Press Releases, this is what Nokia is doing -

  • 4000 layoffs – from the worldwide count of 65000.
  • Out of the 4000 layoffs, 1400 are from Finland, Nokia’s home.
  • 3000 Symbian developers to be transferred to Accenture, Nokia’s partner.
  • The above transfer is for the ‘continued delivery of Software development’.
  • Nokia to still have a ‘dictating’ power over Software development, UI design..
  • Nokia aims to increase the development speed of Symbian.
  • Symbian and MeeGo to be the biggest losers in terms of R&D.

In effect, Symbian will be dead by the end of this year (should be, looking at the way things are unfolding), although Nokia ‘still’ plans to sell 150 million more Symbian-powered devices. Don’t expect a lot from Symbian anymore, that is if you still had hopes left. Anna update is still on course for other Symbian^3 devices, however.

An excerpt from the Press Release -

At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO. “However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce. This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia.

Another excerpt -

Nokia plans to consolidate its R&D sites so that each site has a clear strategic role and mission. Consolidating sites and activities will increase speed and accountability as Nokia ramps up capabilities and competence development on each site.

Although Nokia has dumped 4000 employees (mainly from the Symbian and MeeGo R&D departments), it has promised to find jobs for them. Not sure if I really appreciate this, but it’s better than simply dumping off and doing nothing for them. Reports also suggest Finlands’ Workers Unions have demanded around 1 million (?) for each employee dumped. Astonishing amount that’s being demanded, honestly.

And even if Symbian manages to be a success going forward, Nokia will ‘still’ be committed to Windows Phone. There, Nokia just ditched Symbian totally, although you won’t find this detailed in the Press Releases.

And with all the baggage now being shed, will Nokia finally manage to reinvent itself successfully? Will depending solely on Windows Phone prove to be a good strategy going ahead? These are some of the questions that have been pesking me for quite sometime now. I don’t know if I have an absolute, clear answer yet.

via Nokia Conversations

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