Concluding the stream of news coming from Finland tonight, Nokia has announced that they are "sharpening its strategy, improving its operating model and returning the company to profitable growth." What does that mean in human?

First we'll start off with their strategy 'sharpening'. From the release, it appears Nokia is getting ready to ramp up its efforts with its Lumia Windows Phones. It plans to do that by "broadening" the price range of its Lumia lineup, as well as innovate further with their exclusive and location-driven software efforts. Meanwhile, the company has also stated that it plans to extend its mapping technology to industries in an effort to generate a new source of revenue. Finally, there's a recommitment to their feature phone plans with Asha and other cost-effective mobile products.

But then there's the worst news of the day: Nokia is getting ready for another round of job cuts. The areas within the company that are getting the axe are the Research and Development facilities in Ulm, Germany and Burnaby, Canada; plus their manufacturing factory in Salo, Finland will also be going under. As a result of this rescaling, Nokia estimates that there will be 10,000 jobs cut from the company by the end of 2013. Here's what Elop had to say about the cuts:

"These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength," added Elop. "We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly, and as a company we will work tirelessly to ensure that those at risk are offered the support, options and advice necessary to find new opportunities."

Finally, Nokia has given a word of caution about its upcoming Q2 financial results. Citing a competitive smartphone industry, Nokia says its Smart Devices unit is being negatively affected "to a somewhat greater extent than previously expected". So despite the level of success the Lumia 900 has enjoyed in some territories, it's evident Windows Phone was not enough to get Nokia out of the ditch though we don't think anyone expected it to in such a short amount of time. There's no word on when we can expect Q2 2012 results, but there will be a conference call in a few hours that should prove interesting to listen in on. Stay tuned.

Update: Nokia's press release does include a date for when to expect their Q2 2012 results: July 19, 2012.

Source: Nokia