Nokia staff in Middle East await fate

The fate of almost 5,000 Nokia staff in the Middle East and Africa (Mea) region hangs in the balance as the troubled handset maker yesterday announced a sweeping round of job cuts. Nokia, which has been hit hard by competition from rivals Samsung and Apple, said on Thursday it would slash 10,000 jobs globally. The Finnish firm has 4,641 employees in the Mea region, according to its latest quarterly report, and was yesterday communicating the news of the global job cuts to its staff. Executives at the firm would not immediately clarify how many workers in the Gulf region would be affected by the cuts. Matthew Reed, a senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, who is based in Dubai, said Nokia has been “going through tough times”. The handset maker has been slow to launch its new smartphone range, dubbed the Lumia, in the Middle East and some other markets, Mr Reed said. “They’ve been slow to get these new devices into the market,” he said. “The situation for Nokia has deteriorated substantially and rapidly in the meantime.” Nokia said the 10,000 job cuts will be made by the end of next year, in an attempt to stem mounting losses. More than a third of the cuts will be made in Finland, according to press reports. It also plans to shut some of its operations in Germany, Canada and Finland and the company sold off Vertu, its luxury handset business. Nokia posted a loss of €929 million (Dh5.29bn) in the first quarter of this year, on the back of a 29 per cent decline in sales. Nokia’s sales of mobile phones and services declined by 31 per cent in the Mea region, ahead of the global average in what was a dismal first quarter for the company. Its performance in the Mea region is “slightly worse but broadly in line with the global picture,” said Mr Reed. One upside for Nokia is the good responses received for its Lumia handset, which runs on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, said Mr Reed. “They do have some good devices going through. It’s just taking so long. From TheNational