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Helsinki (pte023/12.01.2005/11:30) - Mobile phone giant Nokia http://www.nokia.com has announced it plans to cut hundreds of jobs in Finland and abroad in an attempt to curb research and development spending. As the Financial Times http://www.ft.com reports, the Finnish company has said it will slash up to 250 jobs in Finland and a "few hundred" more in Germany and other global locations as it follows through on plans to curb research-and-development expenditure to between 9 and 10 per cent of sales by the end of 2006 from the 13 to 14 per cent in 2003.
The cutbacks will see the development of several mobile phone accessories axed, such as a line of necklaces and picture frames that receive and display photos beamed wirelessly from mobile phones. According to Nokia, the cuts will affect its Multimedia unit, which produces higher-end phones as well as the N-Gage gaming handset. The cuts are set to take place gradually in 2005.
"We do expect to make some kind of charge in the first quarter. It could be tens of millions of euros," said Kari Tuutti, a spokesman for Nokia. "But we could say that we expect to get significant cost savings." According to Tuutti, the idea of developing and selling accessories was still valid: "Earlier we have been experimenting with what kinds of gadgets you could combine, but now we are focusing on core accessories such as headsets," he added. According to Tuutti, work on other, so far unannounced products would also be stopped.
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