The Chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, Mr. Terry Gou, claimed that the company will be the single largest contract manufacturer for smartphones, tablets and desktop computers, by the end of the year. The company is already the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods. Mr. Guo was speaking at a shareholders’ meeting held at the company’s headquarters in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday, June 25th. The company happens to be the largest manufacturer of Apple’s mobile products, including iPhones and iPads. The Taiwan-based company also acts as an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) for multinational companies like Sony, Xiaomi, BlackBerry, Huawei and Lenovo. The company also manufacturers the Nokia N1 Android-powered tablet for the beleaguered Finnish consumer electronics and telecom equipment major.
The company, whose original Chinese name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Limited, happens to be the tenth largest employer in the world, and the largest private sector employer in China, with a reported 1.2 million employees spread across its numerous facilities in the country. Foxconn holds the distinction of manufacturing all the three major gaming consoles in the market, including the Xbox gaming console for Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 console for Sony and the Wii U console for Japanese gaming console vendor Nintendo. The company also manufacturers the Kindle tablet for Amazon, among a bunch of other extremely popular electronic devices for a number of vendors worldwide. Outside of China, the company already operates factories in Brazil and the Czech Republic and is currently said to be in talks with the Adani Group to set up its first manufacturing facility in India, which is rumored to manufacture mostly Xiaomi and Apple devices when finally operational.
On the topic of Apple working with other manufacturers for its products, Mr. Guo said he was optimistic that pricing alone would not be determining factor for Apple, and expressed optimism that Foxconn will continue to be “a major OEM” for Apple, going forward. Mr. Guo also said, the fact that Foxconn has worked with the Cupertino-based company since its first generation iPhones, will certainly go a long way in determining Apple’s future course of action. It bears mentioning here, that while Foxconn continues to remain the largest OEM for Apple’s iPhones and iPads, Pegatron and Wistron are two other manufacturers with iPhone manufacturing contracts from Apple, whereas Pegatron and Compal Electronics also make the iPad alongside Foxconn.