While Vodafone is negotiating a rights deal with Apple for the latter’s iPad, which is due to be launched next April, they do so, on the back of a loss of over 500 jobs from their Head Office.

Some 545 jobs are said to be cut at the Berkshire headquarters, but the company have stated that this will be offset by another 170 being created at the front line in their shops.

In a statement, Vodafone said that the focus of the job losses will be in a “number of areas, across a number of locations, primarily in back office functions.”

Observers don’t believe however that this will be the end of the job cuts. According to the Mobile Phone web site, there could be “additional changes as further efficiencies and natural attrition in these functions take effect.”

Vodafone is a British multinational mobile phone network company based in Newbury, Berkshire and currently operates in some 31 countries across the 5 continents.

It has a market value of around £71.2 billion (as of November 2009) and is the world’s second largest mobile phone company behind China Mobile with over 427 million subscribers.

Unfortunately though, in the UK, the company has been underperforming over the last few years. So, job losses are no surprise.

That said, while the number of jobs disappearing is significant, it isn’t as bad as fears over the T-Plus and Orange merger with 4000 believed to be at risk.