Microsoft Corp will stop design and manufacturing of mobile phones, reports Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. A spokesperson for Microsoft Finland declined to comment on the report. This news comes after Microsoft announced the sale of its feature phone business to HMD, a Foxconn subsidiary for $350 million. Back then, Microsoft had also said that it will continue to support and develop its Lumia smartphones.
Now, on Wednesday, the company announced more reductions to its smartphones manufacturing workforce. Microsoft will lay off 1,350 employees in Finland and 500 employees in other countries, making it a total of 1850 job cuts. It will also write down $950 million off its business. In addition, Microsoft will also close down a research and development site in Finland. A representative of the Finnish Union informed Reuters that these cuts would put an end for the development of new phones by Microsoft.
Last year alone, Microsoft announced $7.5 billion write downs and 7,800 job cuts. Recently, Gartner reported that the Windows Phone market share fell below 1% in Q1 2016. Looks like the rumoured Surface Phone may not see the light of day afterall.
Source: Reuters