MUMBAI: Sony’s cellphone division Sony Mobile Communications is cutting about 1,000 jobs or 15 per cent of its global workforce over the next two years (March 2014) in an effort to reduce costs and boost profits.

The company said in a statement that out of the 1,000 job cuts 650 would be from Lund mobile phone plant in Sweden, while the remaining reductions will be primarily consultants in Sweden.

Sony Mobile president and CEO Kunimasa Suzuki said, “Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia™ smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide. We are accelerating the integration and convergence with the wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile’s costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength.”

Sony Mobile will also move its corporate headquarters and certain other functions from Lund, Sweden, to Tokyo, Japan in October 2012. Meanwhile, Lund will mainly focus on software and application development

Sony took over the troubled Sony Ericsson mobile phone venture at the start of this year for Euros 1.05 billion ($1.3 billion), renaming it Sony Mobile.