Communications hardware manufacturers Nokia and Motorola have flagged potential and actual redundancies in the wake of disappointing profits.

The jobs of around 600 Nokia employees are at risk. In a statement on Tuesday in Europe, the company said it was planning changes in its sales and marketing unit, affecting around 450 employees. In addition, the R&D division will "sharpen its focus on fewer, but stronger, research areas", Nokia said, with around 130 Nokia Research Center jobs affected. The company is also planning "workforce adjustments" in its global process operations, affecting around 35 employees.

Nokia will also close its Turku site in Finland, relocating around 220 staff members to Salo, also in Finland. This will take place at the end of January 2009, with the staffing changes coming into force at the start of January.

A Nokia spokesperson said there was "the potential for a certain number of job losses", but denied that all of the staff members being reorganised would definitely be made redundant. Consultation with potentially affected employees is now underway.

"Today's changes are part of Nokia's constant renewal, where it is important to be close to our customers and ensure that our people are able to focus on the key business priorities," senior vice president of human resources Juha Akras said in the company's statement.

"Also, our aim is to find alternative work within Nokia for as many employees as possible." Nokia's announcement comes a few weeks after the company announced a 30 per cent drop in its profits.

Meanwhile, Motorola has confirmed it is to lay off around 3,000 workers in the wake of its latest financial losses.

The communications company has also confirmed it is dropping the Symbian-based UIQ platform in favour of a focus on just three platforms: Android, Windows Mobile and the homegrown P2K platform that Motorola puts into very low-end handsets.

Motorola last week announced a third-quarter net loss of £245 million along with a drop in handset shipments of around 32 per cent. The company also said it was delaying the anticipated spin-off of its handset division, which is headed up by ex-Qualcomm executive Sanjay Jha.

On Monday in Europe, a spokesperson for the company said that "approximately 3,000" employees would be let go. The spokesperson declined to specify which business divisions or geographical areas would be affected by the layoffs, or the precise number of redundancies.

According to Motorola's spokesperson, the job cuts would help the company make around US$800 million in savings during 2009.

Regarding the jettisoning of UIQ, the Motorola spokesperson said: "The plan is on consolidating platforms and simplifying products. We have no further investment plans for Symbian UIQ. The UIQ code is being folded into the wider Symbian platform, as Symbian — soon to be entirely owned by Nokia — prepares to go open source."

Although Motorola has explicitly stated its ongoing support only for Android, Windows Mobile and P2K, the company's spokesperson was not able to confirm whether it will also abandon its Motomagx mobile Linux platform.