Sony to axe 1,000 mobile phone jobs in UK, Sweden and China

Japan's Sony Corp is planning to cut another 1,000 jobs in its smartphone division, which is suffering from the recent strong growth of iPhone maker Apple and low-cost Chinese manufacturers.

Media reports said Sony would cut 1,000 more jobs in its European and Chinese smartphone division, in addition to the 1,000 job cuts announced in October. The job cuts would primarily affect Sony's operations in China, the UK and Sweden.

Including the latest job cuts, Sony's total workforce in the mobile phone division will be reduced by about 30% to 5,000 by the fiscal year ending in March 2016, according to the Nikkei business daily.

The job cuts are expected to be included in the company's earnings report for the April-December period, the newspaper said.

Reuters citing a source reported that the additional job cuts are in line with the company's plan to reduce operating costs in the business by 30% by March 2017.

As per the plan, Sony would cease producing new smartphones for China, where local manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo are leading in the market.

In addition, it would be more selective in introducing Xperia models given the tough competition from Apple and Samsung in the global market.

Digitimes, citing sources at Taiwan's handset supply chain, earlier reported that Sony would amend its policy for the launch of smartphone models, by releasing only one new model a year going forward.

A slowdown in hardware competition for smartphones and the maturing high-end smartphone segment have prompted Sony to modify its roadmap for flagship models, according to the sources.

In October, Sony reported a quarterly loss, which was seven times wider than a year earlier, as it wrote down the value of the smartphone division by $1.5bn (€1.3bn, £1bn) amid plunging sales.