Motorola to Slash Jobs, Embrace Android?

Media reports have tech giant Motorola preparing to slash a large number of jobs...and bet heavily on Google's Android mobile platform.

Although Motorola isn’t expected to announces its third quarter financial results until tomorrow, reports are already swirling that company co-chief executive Sanjay Jha, who heads up the mobile devices business, is planning to slash jobs and focus the company’s mobile business heavily on mid-range consumer handsets based on Google’s Android platform.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Motorola will trim back its mobile offerings to just three platforms: it’s own P2K for entry-level devices, Windows Mobile for business-oriented devices, and Google’s Android for consumer-oriented devices—and may even outsource production of some Windows Mobile devices. Meanwhile, Business Week has reported that Motorola is working on a touch-screen, QWERTY keyboard-toting Android-based phone built focussing on social networking capabilities.

Jha was installed as the head of Motorola’s mobile devices unit in August; previously he headed up Qualcomm’s CDMA division.

In the last two years, Motorola’s handset division has been dragging the company’s overall earnings down, although the company has managed to keep Nokia and Samsung from further eroding its market share.