Mikey CampbellChinese language newspaper China Daily reported on Monday that Apple's Chinese manufacturing partner plans to double the size of its smartphone plant at Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou, which currently produces over 200,000 iPhones a day.
Foxconn's plans call for a $1.1 billion addition to the facility located in Central China's Henan province, with boosted revenue from the massive expansion expected to bring in $20 billion in sales revenue in 2012.
Apple's primary iPhone manufacturer will increase the number of production lines to 95 and add to its over 1 million mainland China employees, 130,000 of whom work at the Zhengzhou facility. Foxconn currently employs a total of 1.2 million people and supplies electronics to a number of worldwide companies.
The Taiwan-based company also operates a production facility in Brazil which also produces certain iPhone models, and is currently trying to iron out local legal issues so that it can fulfill a $12 billion investment to build an iPad manufacturing plant in the region.
Recent rumors suggest that Foxconn will begin producing the next-gen iPad 3 in January, which is expected to include a display with a similar pixel density to iPhone 4 and 4S Retina Displays.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
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57 Comments
Wonderful; that should cut ship times by quite a bit, even in the heavy seasons.
Also, in before this moves from talk about how much better this will be for iPhone availability to talk about how much worse the workers will be treated and how this is somehow directly and exclusively Apple's responsibility.
The next-gen iPad will be an iPad 2S. It will not have a retina screen. It will have Siri and a faster processor.
That is what Apple has always done with its products.
Nice to see my money is such a strong stimulant for Chinese job creation.
If I could find another company to satisfy my tech lust that actually made their products in America, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Apple for their goods. Unfortunately they're all in on it. Even Samsung, who I thought made their stuff in Korea, has relocated large portions (if not most) of its manufacturing to China.
You can't win.
You can't win.
You can if you're Amish. Not only is everything you buy made in America, it's all local!
You can if you're Amish. Not only is everything you buy made in America, it's all local!
Not everything. I was at an Amish community in Mo. and my buddy bought an Amish straw hat. As we drove down the road, he looked inside and it said ' Made in Mexico'.