Motorola slashes 4,000 jobs, cites slowing mobile phone sales

With sales of its mobile phones falling, Motorola announced on Wednesday that it will cut another 4,000 jobs and incur a fourth-quarter loss.

Faced with intensifying competition from Apple's iPhone, HTC's Android-based G1, and other mobile phones in a slowing economy, Motorola has undergone shrinking demand for its own handsets.

The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company is slashing jobs in its wireless unit to prevent financial losses from overtaking its public safety and home entertainment divisions.

Also on Wednesday, Motorola issued a warning of lower-than-anticipated fourth-quarter revenues, pointing to weak sales of mobile phones.

In an effort to turn around Motorola's financial fortunes, Motorola spun off mobile phones as a separate division earlier this year. In August, the company hired Sanjay Jha, a former Qualcomm executive, to head up the new division.

In October, Motorola confirmed to Betanews that it is working on Android-based devices. However, the company has yet to make any product announcements in this category.