No more European made Nokia phones in the near future as the company, once the industry leader, revealed its plan of further reducing its workforce by at least 4000 this year, a move that will affect mostly Finnish and Hungarian workers.

In a statement, Nokia said on Wednesday that the job cuts will be phased throughout the year and will also lead to the closure of the company's phone assembly facilities in Mexico, where 700 workers are poised to be axed later in the year.

Also, 1000 employees will be released in Finland while another 2300 Nokia workers in Hungary will be given their walking papers before the year ends, Nokia said.

Nokia first ceased the operation of its factory in Romania, which is in line with cost-cutting measures being implemented by Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop.

Reuters reported that some 30,000 Nokia workers would be hit Elop's streamlining program that will reduce it current workforce of 130,000, including its affiliate network specialist Nokia Siemens.

However, CNET has suggested too that Nokia will not leave the European theatre altogether, with the company planning to maintain value-added activities both in Finland and Hungary.

To replace the bulk of its manufacturing activities, Nokia looks to Asian contractors in China, Taiwan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, CNET said.

Nokia's latest move is expected, analysts said, judging from the net loss it posted in the last quarter of 2011 - the dismal result already complicated by the company's steady decline over the past two years.

While still leading the pack as the overall leader of mobile phone makers, Nokia saw its competitors getting ahead one by one, with the more lucrative smartphone market now dominated by Apple and Android handsets.

By the end of 2011, Nokia sits on just below 30 percent of overall mobile phone market share, way off its peak in 2008 when the company commanded more than 40 percent of the market and for some time, the brand is almost synonymous to quality smartphones and feature phones.

Yet times have changed and last year, Nokia had been compelled to rely on Microsoft for its next generation of handsets that will be powered by the Windows Phone mobile platform, which the company hopes will spur its recovery.

Analysts, however, are predicting that Nokia on Windows Phone will only make a dent probably later this year and will start to become a force to reckon with by next year

That forecast is likely influenced by the moderate sales achieved by the Lumia lines, which Nokia said sold over a million units after its November release.

Pitted against the iPhone 4S, which sold more than 30 million units following its late October launch, Nokia's numbers were downright disappointing, tech watchers said.

And to cut jobs to cut cost made sense, according to Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics.

Nokia explained too that looking to Asia for its manufacturing requirements will allow the mobile phone maker to gain more competitiveness and create more platforms for innovations.

Mawston agreed, explaining that "it's an unstoppable trend really ... as labour costs, land costs and other associated costs are so much lower in Asia."

"Also, Asia is so much closer to the biggest pool of users now so from a supply and demand side Asia looks a lot more attractive than Europe," Mawston told the Associated Press.