Sony Ericsson, the JV between Swedish firm, Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp. is making an attempt to survive in a world where demand for mobile handsets is yet to catch pace ever since the economy went into submission last year. The firm announced a new round of job slashing numbering 2,000 across the globe. Even in India, the company has decided to wind up its R&D centre in Chennai. The centre had come up only last year in November.

In total, the company is winding up three other R&D centres including one in USA and Netherlands.  The move means the company’s R&D centres will halve in number as there are currently 8 centres in operations.

The company had last year announced 2000 job cuts to be completed in a year. The new job cuts are in addition to those figures.

The company is facing rough waters on the financial front. Its Q3 09 revenues were down 42 % at euro 1.6 billion Handset shipments halved to 14.1 million. The company though managed to narrow down its loss to euro 164 million from euro 213 million in June 09 quarter.

In India the company has a market share of around 6 % but in a changing market scenario where smartphones are the order of the day from consumers, the firm is finding it difficult to match the competition. The company last year announced to shrink its handset product portfolio by 20% and concentrate on mid and high level range where the margins are reasonable.