Nokia, Motorola Mobility and Sony Mobile Communications are expected to increase their outsourcing of handsets to Taiwan-based ODMs in 2012 in an effort to regain their global market share lost to Apple and Samsung Electronics, according to industry sources.

Nokia announced recently plans to lay off 4,000 employees at its plants in Hungary, Mexico and Finland and to relocate production to Asia. Under the project, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) is expected to land more EMS and smartphone orders from Nokia, while Compal Communications will also see smartphone orders from Nokia increase in 2012.

Motorola is expected to strengthen its ties with FIH and Arima Communications with efforts dedicated to the development of Android-based smartphones, the sources added.

Sony will also focus on Android phones, and it will cooperate with Foxconn Electronics for the production of entry-level and mid-range models, while also outsourcing some smartphone models to Arima.

However, new management teams may emerge in Motorola and Sony resulting from the recent corporate restructuring which may result in some changes with regards to product development and procurement strategies at the two vendors, the sources noted.

Source:digitimes