Motorola could slash as much as half of the workforce in its mobile devices group very shortly, an apparent tip to Phone Scoop suggests. The company is reportedly set to start major layoffs this week that would drop 50 percent of the staff and is said to be dramatically scaling back its phone development as a whole. Most if not all development for smartphones is already believed to be switching exclusively to Android while Motorola's own phone introductions may scale back to as few as 12 devices per year.

The company is also reportedly shelving plans to have a booth at the CTIA show in April despite its being the premiere cellphone event in the US.

The shift if accurate reveals an even more drastic attempt to turn the company's fortunes, which in the last quarter turned to a $397 million loss and saw the American cellphone producer shed a full third of its phone sales in the space of just 12 months. Most of this has been attributed to substantial drops in high-end phones as well as the lack of a compelling low-end; the company's popular RAZR has at least temporarily ceded its top spot in the US to the iPhone and BlackBerries.