Items tagged with foxconn
A scathing report by China Labor Watch (CLW) outlines an alleged "string of labor rights violations" at Foxconn (otherwise known as Hon Hai Precision) in relation to the production of Apple iPhone handsets. The disconcerting report arrives just as Apple is getting ready to launch a new line of flagship iPhone devices. CLW's latest report focuses on the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory in China. This location has been dubbed "iPhone City" because it the largest iPhone factory in the world, spanning 1.4 million square meters. Over half of all iPhones sold worldwide come from there. "Our recent findings on working conditions at Zhengzhou Foxconn highlights several issues which are in violation of Apple’s...
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Will the next generation iPhone sport an even fancier display than the OLED panels that are found on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max? It's a possibility. Apparently Foxconn, which assembles the bulk of Apple's iPhone products, is extending its investments into microLED technology through three of its subsidiaries, including Advanced Optoelectronic Technology (AOT), Epileds Technologies, and Marketech International. All three have developed and are currently ramping up capacities of parts related to the production of microLED chip, as well as production equipment. While a cursory glance at the name might suggest that microLED is a step backward from OLED, the opposite is actually true. Both technologies...
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Foxconn is most known for building numerous devices for other major electronics companies such as Apple; in fact, Foxconn is tipped to be building the majority of the rumored new MacBook Air models. Belkin is known as one of the major sellers of accessories and docking stations that work with Apple devices and accessories for other brands of gadgets. Foxconn Interconnect Technology Limited (FIT) has announced that it intends to purchase Belkin for $866 million in cash, which the company says will create a global consumer electronics leader. "FIT is excited to acquire Belkin and its capabilities in the premium consumer products space," said Sidney Lu, CEO, FIT. "Integrating Belkin's best-in-class...
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An image has leaked via Chinese website Baidu that shows what is allegedly a line art image of a coming Nokia smartphone. According to the leak, this smartphone has five cameras arrayed around the back of the smartphone. We can clearly see a series of smaller circles arrayed around the circumference of a larger circle in the leaked image. We would assume that the lone circle below the cameras is the fingerprint scanner, but there is no confirmation of that. Anyone who can count can see that there are seven smaller circles on the back of that smartphone. Since the leak tips five cameras, the other circles might be for laser element and LED flash. The source of the leak is claimed to be Foxconn,...
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Foxconn has announced that it is making a massive investment into a new U.S. manufacturing facility. The gigantic factory will cover 20,000 square feet and is said to be a virtual village with the factory, housing, and services arrayed around a 1,000 acre parcel of land. The investment in the facility by Foxconn will cost $10 billion and will be constructed somewhere in Wisconsin. The construction of the facility is expected to be completed by 2020, and could employ as many as 13,000 workers. One source claims that when completed with other suppliers wanting to relocate closer to the new Foxconn factory, as many as 22,000 jobs could be created in the area. The factory will build LCDs with the...
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Foxconn is attempting to acquire Toshiba's semiconductor business though it is not going at it alone. According to multiple reports, both Apple and Amazon have joined forces with Foxconn to grab a piece of the sale, with each company offering up an untold amount of financial backing to help push the deal through.It is also said that Taiwan's Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision, has partnered with Sharp in its bid. Foxconn acquired Sharp last year in a deal worth in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion."Foxconn can confirm that we have submitted a bid for Toshiba's chip business with a number of strategic partners," the company told Reuters. It is not willing to discuss specifics of the deal,...
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It looks as though President Donald Trump may be getting his wish when it comes to bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States. It is being reported that Foxconn is looking to build a “highly automated” manufacturing facility in the U.S. that would produce display panels. It’s expected that investment in the facility will top $7 billion, and that long-time partner Apple will assist Foxconn in its funding, construction and operation. "Apple is willing to invest in the facility together because they need the [panels] as well," said Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou. The facility could have the capacity to sustain 30,000 to 50,000 jobs in the U.S., with Gou adding that such a move was “inevitable”...
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Some people take “swiping” a little too seriously. A former senior manager at the Taiwanese corporation Foxconn has been indicted for stealing and selling 5,700 iPhones in China. It is estimated that the manager, identified by his family name Tsai, pocketed $50 million TWD ($1.56 million USD) during his escapades. Tsai worked in a testing department in Foxconn factory in the southern mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen. Tsai and his eight accomplices sold thousands of test iPhone 5/iPhone 5s smartphones to stores in Shenzhen between 2013 and 2014. These phones were initially supposed to be scrapped. Foxconn reported the missing phones after an internal audit last year. Tsai was questioned earlier...
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Apple may be an American company, but the bulk of its products (save for the long-neglected Mac Pro, which is assembled in the United States) are manufactured in China. The relatively low cost of labor, coupled with premium pricing for devices like the iPhone, has allowed Apple to become one of the most profitable companies in the world. However, according to a new report from the Nikkei Asian Review, during the past year, Apple has at least explored the idea of manufacturing the iPhone in the United States. According to a source for the publication, “Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assembly plants, in June to look into making iPhones in the U.S. Foxconn complied, while...
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At times it feels as though Apple can be stubbornly slow in adopting features that other smartphone makers have already implemented, one of which is wireless charging. Many hoped it would be included with the iPhone 7. It was not, though don't lose hope if you're an iPhone fan, there is chatter that wireless charging will be one of the feature upgrades on the iPhone 8.That tidbit comes from an industry source who is supposedly familiar with the matter. According to the unnamed source, Hon Hai Precision (parent firm of Foxconn) is producing wireless modules for what will be the 10th anniversary line of iPhone devices.Whether wireless charging actually comes to fruition on the iPhone 8 will ultimately...
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Apple supplier Foxconn replaced 60,000 human workers with robot workers in Kunshan, Jiangsu, China. This makeover was motivated by both rising labor costs and the 2014 explosion in Kunshan that killed 146 people. Although Kunshan is one-seventh the size of neighboring Shanghai, it was the first mainland city in China to achieve $4,000 USD per capita income. Forbes rated Jiangsu as the Chinese county with the best economic performance seven years in a row. At the end of 2014, Kunshan had a population of 2.5 million people, two-thirds of whom were migrant workers. The 2014 explosion and overall reduced profits did some serious damage to the Kunshan economy. The explosion revealed the...
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Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that builds most of Apple's iPhone devices and other mobile products, is said to have offered around 600 billion yen ($5.1 billion in U.S. currency) to take over Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp., the latter of which has seen better days.Citing a person familiar with the talks, Bloomberg says the struggling electronics maker has until the end of January to respond to the offer. It's the latest attempt by Foxconn, otherwise known as Hon Hai Precision, to take controlling interest in Sharp, efforts of which date back several years.In 2012, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou bought a 38 percent stake in Sharp's display factory in Japan. At the same time, Foxconn presented...
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Foxconn is one of the biggest manufacturers of Apple's iPhone handsets, along with electronic gadgets and gizmos from various other well known companies, and for now, all those devices still require a human element. However, that might not always be the case as Foxconn dives deeper in robotics. What you may not realize is that Foxconn has been developing robotics technology for over a decade. The company's efforts have mostly flown under the radar, though it gained attention when its Japanese partner SoftBank trotted out a humanoid service robot called Pepper. That was in 2014. Foxconn's robots are, appropriately enough, called Foxbots. They don't resemble humans even though they're replacing...
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Foxconn CEO Terry Gou spoke out at a shareholder’s meeting to set the record straight on comments made at the beginning of the year about robots. It turns out that the era of robot-powered factories isn’t quite as near as the head of Foxconn seemed to imply in February and he’s holding the media responsible for misquoting him. “It should be that in five years, the roots will take over 30 percent of the manpower,” Gou told shareholders this week. Reports earlier in the year indicted that Gou expected 70 percent of assembly line work around 2018, which would likely have had a huge impact on jobs for many of the million employees at Foxconn’s factories. Instead, it looks like Foxconn will be relying...
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That was fast. Less than a week after Re/code broke so-called news out of China that Nokia was returning to the phone manufacturing fold via its patent licensing division Nokia Technologies, the Finland-based company has issued a statement via their website denying its intent to re-enter the cell phone space in which they for so long ruled. "Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive. Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets." The Re/code...
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Flying high on the success of its iPhone trade-in program in the U.S., Apple is reportedly going to introduce a similar incentive in the China with the help of Foxconn. Beginning March 31, owners of older iPhone models will be able to trade their devices in at Apple Store locations in China and receive credit for the company's products.Apple isn't getting into the used phone business, though Foxconn is more than happy to purchase the traded-in models and flip them back to consumers who might not be interested in or able to afford a shiny new flagship model.As they're accustomed to doing, Apple and Foxconn will work closely on the program (Foxconn is Apple's main supplier of iPhones and other...
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Terry Gou, Chief Executive Officer at Foxconn, had an ambition goal in mind for 2015: replace one million workers with robots for menial tasks during the assembly of consumer electronic devices, including those sold by companies like Apple. With Foxconn coming under increased scrutiny for labor violations and workers demanding higher wages, replacing workers with robots that don’t require payment or complain about working conditions could be just what the doctor ordered. However, Jiemian, a Chinese financial publication, reports (via G for Games) that not all is going according to plan. While Foxconn has plans to field a fully automated plant within five to ten years, its first foray into the...
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One of the rumors leading up to the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was that Apple's flagship phones would sport sapphire glass displays, the same material found on its Touch ID sensor and covering the camera lenses. Unfortunately, Apple's relationship with sapphire glass supplier GT Advanced turned sour and the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy, so it wasn't meant to be. That's the bad news. The good news is that Foxconn may emerge as a sapphire glass supplier.Foxconn already handles the bulk of production for Apple's mobile devices, including its iPhone line, leaving little to no room to focus on building sapphire glass displays. However, the company reportedly plans to spend...
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Is there truly a problem in the design of the iPhone 6 Plus that makes it prone to bending and warping? If you ask that question to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, he'll tell you quite emphatically that not only is the whole "bendgate" thing being blown way out of proportion, but that rival phone makers who stand to gain from Apple's negative publicity are the ones spreading the FUD. "This was all caused by distortions from competitors. Don't blindly listen to it," Gou said in a Chinese-language news video posted to YouTube (we're trusting PCWorld's translation on this one). Foxconn has a vested interest in the success of the iPhone, as it's the primary manufacturer of Apple's handsets. However, the company...
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Curved displays are a relatively new development in the consumer space. Samsung is super proud of its curved 4K television, and in mobile, both Samsung and LG are showing off curved smartphones, which they say are designed to fit rear pockets. However, not everyone is convinced that this is the future of display design. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou is among the critics who don't see a need or reason for curved smartphones. "People are talking about, wow, displays that can transform, but they forget that you have to be able to use these devices," Gou said at Foxconn's shareholder meeting, according to PCWorld. It's interesting that Gou would have anything all to say on the matter, though it could be...
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As part of BlackBerry's attempted comeback tour, the Canadian handset maker today officially unveiled its new BlackBerry Z3, Jakarta Edition smartphone during a launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia. As the model name implies, this budget friendly device is being built exclusively for Indonesia, though the other notable thing about the Jakarta Edition is that it's BlackBerry's first handset co-created with Foxconn. Otherwise known as Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn's parent company), you might recognize the name from any of the many other devices it builds, including Apple's iPhone and other gadgets. There's a market for low-cost handsets in Indonesia (and other parts of the world), and it's currently...
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It's no secret that companies like to outsource production to overseas markets where labor is cheap and labor laws are often lax, to put it nicely. That isn't about to change, though it's nice to see companies move at least some of their manufacturing operations to U.S. soil, such as Motorola did when it started building Moto X devices in the state of Texas. Motorola isn't the only one looking stateside. Apple in November of last year announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Arizona that it expects to create some 2,000 jobs, and now we've learned that Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) is thinking about opening up a plant in the U.S. as well. Foxconn chairman Terry Gou told reporters at...
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