Foxconn may not be a household name, but the odds are pretty good that you’re reading this post on a device that the company made or assembled under contract for companies like Acer, Dell, and Apple. The Taiwanese company does most of its manufacturing in mainland China, but is considering building a $7 billion factory somewhere in the United States. [More]
foxconn
Foxconn Employee Accused Of Stealing & Reselling 5,700 iPhones
By 12.2.16
This sounds like something from a TV episode, or maybe even a novel or film: an employee who works with sensitive, high-value technology manages to sneak test units out of the job for years and sell them for a fat wad of cash. In a movie, he’d take the money and retire quietly to a nice tropical island where the drinks come with umbrellas in them. In reality, however, he is now being indicted by Taiwanese authorities for the theft. [More]
It Takes Dozens Of Companies To Make Your iPhone
By 8.5.16
Where does your mobile phone actually come from? What company makes it? How many people — how many businesses, how many factories, how many hands — were involved in its making? Most of us probably have no idea whatsoever how to answer those questions. [More]
iPhone 6 Demand Delaying Production On New iPads
By 10.9.14
The good news for Apple is that the success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is restoring some of the luster to the brand that had faded following the candy-colored disappointment that was the iPhone 5C. The bad news is that keeping up with demand for the new devices is delaying production on new iPads. [More]
Foxconn Admits To Working Unpaid Student Interns Overtime To Push Out PS4
By 10.10.13
Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturing firm, is at the center of controversy once again after admitting to pushing student interns to work overtime in advance of the release of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 4 gaming console. [More]
Report: Apple Sent 5-8 Million Shoddy iPhones Back To Foxconn
By 4.23.13
The Apple rumor mill is a-churning yet again, and this time it’s not another breathless bit of speculation about the newest version of the iPhone: A report out of China claims that the smartphone giant sent anywhere between five and eight million shoddy iPhones back to its manufacturer, Foxconn, out of concerns that the phones weren’t up to snuff. [More]
Report: Amazon Preparing To Debut Its Own Smartphone In 2013
By 12.18.12
Amazon already has big box stores scrambling to compete with its massive online business, and now it seems the company might be gearing up to terrify smartphone makers with its own device. A new report claims the retailer will be debuting a device sometime in the middle of next year. It’ll be manufactured by Foxconn and go for between $100-$200. [More]
iPhone 5 Supplier Blames Design For Manufacturing Delays
By 11.7.12
Since the first iPhone became a coveted, line-up-to-get-one device, Apple has been accused of deliberately creating shortages in order to fuel reports of retail sell-outs and clamoring customers. But the company that actually manufactures the iPhone 5 says that in this case, the device’s design is what is keeping it from some consumers. [More]
Your Shiny New iPhone 5 Might Take A While To Ship Due To Its Easily Scratched Case
By 10.11.12
Say what you want about iPhones, but when a new one comes out, plenty of people want one as quick as they can get their hot little hands on’em. But you might have to be sitting on your hot hands a little while longer. The reason there’s such a sluggish shipping pattern could be partly because of the pretty pretty aluminum Apple chose for the iPhone 5’s cases. It’s pretty, yes, but it’s also very scratchable, and now Apple is trying to deal with that issue. [More]
Expect More Foxconn Riots In The Future Due To ‘Spiritual Emptiness’
By 9.26.12
Earlier this week, a Foxconn factory in Taiyuan, northern China, shut down production when a brawl broke out in the dormitories that involved as many as 2,000 workers. The real question is this: how long until it happens again? [More]
Foxconn Finally Agrees To Improve Conditions For Apple Plant Workers By Cutting Hours
By 8.22.12
After a spate of controversial reports on the working conditions at Foxconn’s Chinese factories where many of Apple’s products are made, the two companies have announced a cut in hours that will benefit workers. An auditing company hired by Apple and Foxconn has been monitoring the process, and says things are on the way toward improving. [More]
Audit Finds That Foxconn Workers Are Laboring Under Crappy Conditions
By 3.30.12
While it turned out that monologuist Mike Daisey made up a bunch of stuff about working conditions at Foxconn, that doesn’t mean that things there are all sunshine and roses. A recent labor audit found the giant Chinese manufacturer has working conditions that need a whole heck of a lot of improvement. [More]
Apple CEO Tim Cook Takes A Tour Of Foxconn During Trip To China
By 3.29.12
In his first visit to China as head honcho of the company, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook made time to take a tour of one of the company’s key suppliers, Foxconn. The plant has been in the news again recently after This American Life retracted Mike Daisey’s story about visiting it for not being so factual. [More]
Man Behind Juked-Up Apple/Foxconn Story Says He Lied To "Make People Care"
By 3.19.12
As we reported on Friday, This American Life had to issue a retraction on a radio segment about workers at a Foxconn factory where Apple products are made because Mike Daisey, the man whose story is the thrust of the piece, fabricated a number of the details. And while Daisey has admitted he made things up, he says he did it all with good intentions. [More]
More Than 250,000 People Petition Apple For Better Conditions At iPhone Factory
By 2.9.12
Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics manufacturing company, assembling devices for just about every major company, from Apple to Microsoft to Sony to Nintendo. It has come under fire in recent years, following reports of poor working conditions and employee suicides. Concerned that their favorite products might be being produced in such an unfriendly environment, more than 250,000 Apple users have signed two petitions asking that company to improve conditions at Foxconn. [More]
Report: Hundreds Of Xbox Makers At Foxconn Plant Threatened Suicide
By 1.12.12
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has factories just about everywhere in the world, and they make stuff for just about every gadget company that you can think of. This makes any news coming out of the company, from 2010’s suicide cluster to last year’s explosion, fascinating to us. But it’s hard to look at your Xbox quite the same way after learning that hundreds of Foxconn workers reportedly took to the roof and threatened suicide over severance payments. [More]
When A Mac Cultist Traveled To The Apple Factory
By 1.11.12
You may have idly wondered where it is that your favorite gadgets come from…for a few seconds, and then gone right back to your game of Fruit Ninja. But writer and performer Mike Daisey took that curiosity to a whole other level. He traveled to the “special economic zone” of Shenzhen, China, to see where it is that all of our crap comes from. UPDATE, 3/16/12: This American Life has issued a retraction of this story after reporters tracked down Daisey’s interpreter and learned that much of the material presented in the show was made up. [More]
Three Workers Die In Explosion At Foxconn Factory
By 5.23.11
Three workers have died in an explosion at a plant run by Foxconn Technology Group in Hongfujin, China. Fifteen other workers were injured at the plant, said to be a manufacturing base for Apple’s iPad. [More]
