The news that has been rumored about Motorola starting layoffs in 2009 is now finally being confirmed by the company. Although the company is spinning it as a significant workforce reduction that is necessary to remain competitive, the mobile phone division will be the hardest hit in the estimated 4,000 employees to be kicked to the curb.

Motorola has been struggling to find its legs in the mobile phone space with competitors such as RIM and Apple snapping up more of the Smartphone market space where Motorola has struggled to gain a foothold. While some of the Motorola Smartphone offerings have been somewhat successful, the company is lagging behind in Smartphone sales; the area which analysts believe is the market segment with the largest potential for growth.

The mobile phone division has been betting on Android as the next big thing and is expected to continue to push their new Android-powered handsets as their big chance to get back into the game. Initial reports have seen some promising concepts and design elements in the new handsets in the pipeline, but it is still too early to tell if consumers will embrace them.

While the layoffs and restructuring will take place across all divisions, with these additional layoffs Motorola will have let a mind blowing 7,000 employees go since fourth quarter of last year. The head count reductions in the mobile phone division have tallied over 3,000 alone since last year.

It will be difficult for Motorola to regain its market share, but they have been down before and have been able to rebound. Still, we don’t know that we have ever quite seen them this far down; and we have to at least wonder if this is just great an obstacle for the company to get past. Only time will tell, but as with Motorola recoveries of the past, the company will need something new and different to grab the attention of the consumer, and that could just be too much to ask for.