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Foxconn Hiring Workers for iPhone 5S Production

Monday April 15, 2013 6:24 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are reporting that Foxconn has begun hiring new workers in support of iPhone 5S production. The articles follow a separate report from The Wall Street Journal earlier this month claiming that production on the new iPhone would begin this quarter ahead of a potential summer launch.

From today's Wall Street Journal report:
A company spokesman declined to elaborate on production plans, only saying that Foxconn will continue to expand its workforce in Zhengzhou to meet seasonal demand from clients. But executives familiar with the situation said the company has stepped up hiring in Zhengzhou because it is preparing for production of the new iPhone.

"We have been very busy recently as we will start mass-producing the new iPhone soon," said a Zhengzhou-based executive who has direct knowledge of production plans.
iphone_production
iPhone being prepared for final assembly (Source: Apple)

Bloomberg's source offered similar information on Foxconn's hiring push:
Workers have been recruited at Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, eastern China, for the past month, ending a hiring freeze imposed in February, said the person, who asked not to be named because the plans haven’t been made public. The extra workers will assemble the new device as well as existing models and have been added at Apple’s request to boost capacity, the person said.
Apple has been rumored to be planning to introduce its next-generation iPhone as soon as the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, which has itself been rumored for its usual June timeframe.

Other reports have, however, been pushing their predictions of the iPhone 5S launch later in 2013, with relatively reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo just last week having predicted that work on a fingerprint sensor would result in the iPhone 5S launching later than many observers have expected. Kuo declined to offer a specific target date for the iPhone 5S launch, but outlined three possible scenarios involving a launch taking place between September and November.

Tags: bloomberg.com, wsj.com
[ 51 comments ]


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BlindGoldfish
83 months ago
Does the iPhone in that picture that is being prepared for final assembly have a protective coating? Or is this Apple leaking a picture of a yellow iPhone 5S...
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
jmthigpen
83 months ago
The iPhone 5 is already so fast, never notice any lag. Looking forward to an even faster iPhone though!
Rating: 4 Votes
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D.T.
83 months ago

Don't think so, if you magnify the picture you can see holes in the bottom, now why should there be holes in a protective casing.
And, how thick is the casing, 0.1 mm, you just can't see a casing around it.


It just looks like protective tape you see on all sort of electronics during manufacturing/assembly [?]
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
KdParker
83 months ago
Well, lets see some parts.

From what has been 'released' so far it looks like the same phone with some minor updates.

Guess the magical changes will be in i0S 7
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
Peace
83 months ago

Does the iPhone in that picture that is being prepared for final assembly have a protective coating? Or is this Apple leaking a picture of a yellow iPhone 5S...


The actual phone is sitting in a protective case. Or mold if you will.

That picture comes from an article that is almost a year old.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
metsjetsfan
83 months ago
So start around early May and produce about 50k units a day or more should project to a june launch in US?
Rating: 2 Votes
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gnasher729
83 months ago

Foxconn is hiring? Where do I apply?! /s :rolleyes:


At Foxconn.
Rating: 2 Votes
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AQUADock
83 months ago

Don't think so, if you magnify the picture you can see holes in the bottom, now why should there be holes in a protective casing.
And, how thick is the casing, 0.1 mm, you just can't see a casing around it.


If you look closely you can see it has a hole for a 30 pin connector so it either a 4 or 4S.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
till213
83 months ago

Last quarter Apple sold an average of 500,000 iPhones... every day.

But it was reported that it takes a total of 24 hours to make one iPhone.

So how many workers does Foxconn need to manufacture at that pace?


Oh, that one's very easy math, about primary school grade: You sell 500'000 units per day and one unit takes 24 hours to produce (for the sake of simplicity we assume for one person).

So you need exactly 500'000 cheap workers - solved!

;)
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
itsmemuffins
83 months ago

Does the iPhone in that picture that is being prepared for final assembly have a protective coating? Or is this Apple leaking a picture of a yellow iPhone 5S...


Your screen name is apt.

That's a 4/4S chassis.
Rating: 1 Votes

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