Google has added insult to injury. Earlier, the company pushed an Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update to Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX users, which removed all Motorola-branded apps from the devices.
Now, Google has announced it will be laying off 10 percent of the Motorola unit, amid dropping sales and cost-reduction efforts.
"These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer. It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition," Motorola said in a statement.
Motorola Mobility, which was purchased by Google in 2012, immediately shuttered its Indian website in response to the news.
"We are streamlining our business and support systems and unfortunately, we'll no longer have a dedicated website for India. Your local support site will remain open into the future, and we'll continue to provide support for our existing products," Motorola Mobility's website said.
There were 11,113 employees working at Motorola last December. Friday's cuts will affect 1,200 of them, on top of the 4,000 layoffs that were already announced previously.
The news of more layoffs is somewhat puzzling, as the industry is still eagerly waiting for the so-called Motorola X phone — an "amazing" new device allegedly coming out around May.
"While we're very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges," reads an internal email to staff, obtained by the Wall Street Journal. "Our costs are too high, we're operating in markets where we're not competitive and we're losing money."
All in all, the future looks bleak for Motorola. The company was once a tech-industry darling. The original RAZR, released in 2004, was greeted with great fanfare and massive sales. The handset's slim dimensions and striking appearance propelled it to the top of the flip-phone market (remember those?) where it remained for years, in spite of its shoddy build and glitchy software.
