Sony Ericsson to close Kista development centre

Mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson gave redundancy notices to 130 employees on Wednesday in conjunction with plans to close a development centre in Kista, north of Stockholm.

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The announcement came on the same day the company previewed a new touch screen mobile phone.

Negotiations with unions are already underway, according to a statement from the Swedish-Japanese mobile handset maker.

Roughly 100 consultants tied to the development centre are also in danger of losing their jobs.

“The closing of the development centre in Kista is connected to a global restructuring and streamlining programme we launched last year. It encompasses roughly 2,000 employees,” Sony Ericsson spokesperson Gustaf Brusewitz told the TT news agency.

“We expect to have it completed by the middle of next year.”

The news came on the heels of a Wednesday morning press conference during which Sony Ericsson previewed its new X10 touch screen mobile phone, which is set to run on the Google Android operating system.

The company hopes the phone, set to be launched sometime during the first quarter of next year, will catapult Sony Ericsson to the front of the mobile touch screen pack.

Ever since the launch of iPhone, Sony Ericsson’s results have suffered due to a lack of models able to compete with the much heralded Apple handset.

Sony Ericsson said it also plans to launch several additional touch screen mobile phones during the first half of 2010.