Smart phone manufacturer Nokia has recently announced its plans to phase out the well known Symbian mobile based operating system. In addition, the company will be laying off more than 4,000 employees throughout the UK and Finland. Nokia and Accenture have signed a contract that would let the software based company take over the development of the Symbian mobile operating system. Executives at Nokia are attempting to reduce the company’s exposure by eliminating $1 billion in operating costs by the close of 2012.
Around 3,000 Nokia employees will be transferred to another department. It is not yet known if the company is working on a new operating system or if they play on partnering with another mobile technology company. Nokia’s business deal with Accenture will allow them to retain intellectual property rights to the Symbian OS. Future upgrades and modifications will be done at the sole discretion of Accenture, however, Nokia will still profit from the sale of Symbian based mobile devices.
Accenture plans to develop and manufacture approximately 150 million smart phones running the Symbian OS. Many technology experts agree that Symbian became less popular with the introduction of Android and iOS based smart phone technology. Since the release of the iPhone, consumers have slowly come to favor Apple mobile devices. Nokia smart phones are still selling well, however, the technology that the company developed has largely benefited its competitors. Nokia has announced no plans to produce a new line of smart phones, but its partnership with Accenture may indicate that a big project is in the works.