Hon Hai | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 10 May 2017 00:06:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Hon Hai | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Foxconn looking to build factory in the US, move closer to Apple https://www.kitguru.net/channel/paul-taylor/foxconn-looking-build-factory-in-the-us-move-closer-to-apple/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/paul-taylor/foxconn-looking-build-factory-in-the-us-move-closer-to-apple/#comments Tue, 09 May 2017 23:36:33 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=333542 Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturing conglomerate and Apple's biggest OEM manufacturing partner, has begun talks with the US federal authorities to find a suitable place to set up a sixth-generation TFT-LCD panel factory, according to Digitimes. The display factory would cater to small-to-medium sized 6G panels and could be used in Apple's iPhone, iPad and MacBooks, it …

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Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturing conglomerate and Apple's biggest OEM manufacturing partner, has begun talks with the US federal authorities to find a suitable place to set up a sixth-generation TFT-LCD panel factory, according to Digitimes.

The display factory would cater to small-to-medium sized 6G panels and could be used in Apple's iPhone, iPad and MacBooks, it is said. It would also move the busines a lot closer to the source of much of the autonomous driving system R&D going on in the States, which Foxconn could potentially supply with automotive displays. The likelihood of Foxconn investing in a large display panel factory is low, as the company cannot compete under its house brand – Sharp – after it had sold its US license to Chinese HiSense (until 2020).

At the moment, it seems, the company is still in talks with Federal and State authorities to find the best location and incentives for its investment, so no hard date has been set.

Foxconn, after the Sharp acquisition, and having a considerable stake in several other display companies, can tap into three different types of display technology: IGZO, a-Si and LTPS, which offer each different sets of Pros and Cons. IGZO is set to be a premium type of display, which is expensive to manufacture, while Amorphous Silicon and Polycrystalline Silicon offer much cheaper tooling and manufacturing costs.

Whether politically or economically driven, moving manufacturing to the US seems to play into the US President's official line, who has been making a case for the return of manufacturing jobs Stateside.

KitGuru Says: This is one of those cases where politics have a definite impact on the high-tech industry. After Silicon Valley, the Far East seems to be the next step in bringing high-tech manufacturing to the US. 

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Toshiba NAND bid hits $30 billion mark. TSMC bows out, leaves Foxconn in the lead https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/paul-taylor/toshiba-nand-bid-hits-30-billion-mark-tsmc-bows-out-leaves-foxconn-in-the-lead/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/paul-taylor/toshiba-nand-bid-hits-30-billion-mark-tsmc-bows-out-leaves-foxconn-in-the-lead/#comments Fri, 07 Apr 2017 17:39:59 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=329172 Reports have surfaced in the Japanese press that TSMC has quit on its bid to buy Toshiba's rather precious NAND-flash business, leaving Foxconn in the lead position. Foxconn has offered to pony-up 3 trillion Yen (around $30 billion), or $21.2 billion more than what Reuters had reported as the sought-after selling price. TSMC's dropping out …

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Reports have surfaced in the Japanese press that TSMC has quit on its bid to buy Toshiba's rather precious NAND-flash business, leaving Foxconn in the lead position. Foxconn has offered to pony-up 3 trillion Yen (around $30 billion), or $21.2 billion more than what Reuters had reported as the sought-after selling price.

TSMC's dropping out of the race, according to industry sources, was due to management's belief the sale would go State-side rather than Taiwan, because of regulators' concerns in Japan. This has left Foxconn and Broadcom (together with Silver Lake Partners) as the likely contenders in a bidding war which will continue in late May with a second round of bids, says the Asahi Shimbun. Original bidders for the NAND business were cited to have included the likes of Korea's SK Hynix, Google, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Western Digital and Micron.

There is, however, good reason for all the fanfare and interest: Toshiba's NAND flash unit is the second-largest NAND Flash memory producer in the world, right after Samsung, and demand for NAND has skyrocketed in the past few years, with supply being consistently on allocation since early 2016.

You will have noticed by now that SSD pricing has been going up, month after month.

Toshiba had decided to bite the bullet and spin off the goose which lay the golden eggs to make up for a massive $6.3 Bn write-down earlier this year, triggered by its failing US nuclear energy business, Westinghouse Electric. Tensions had been high at a shareholder meeting in February when the company addressed the big glowing radioactive elephant in the room. And rightly so, selling off the most valuable asset in the company – without an alternative – can jeopardize the long term viability of the company as a whole.

KitGuru Says: Hon Hai had, last summer, already snapped up Sharp for $3.5 billion, and while Japanese regulators have tentatively given the go-ahead on the Toshiba NAND sale,  authorities may raise concerns if a Taiwan-owned, China-operated conglomerate takes over another key business in Japan.

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Foxconn eyes robots, electric cars, wearables and cloud services https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/foxconn-eyes-robots-electric-cars-wearables-and-cloud-services/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/foxconn-eyes-robots-electric-cars-wearables-and-cloud-services/#respond Fri, 27 Jun 2014 22:59:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=200452 Foxconn Electronics, the world’s largest contract maker of consumer electronics and the main manufacturing partner of Apple, plans to make wearable computing devices, robots and even electric cars, the company’s chief executive officer said this week. Foxconn has been trying to expand and diversify its business for years and now is the time when the …

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Foxconn Electronics, the world’s largest contract maker of consumer electronics and the main manufacturing partner of Apple, plans to make wearable computing devices, robots and even electric cars, the company’s chief executive officer said this week. Foxconn has been trying to expand and diversify its business for years and now is the time when the company sees new opportunities.

Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) plans to move beyond product assembly in a bid to improve its margins. To do so, going forward the company intends to create its own cloud services, design and build electric vehicles in-house and even construct robots. Essentially, Foxconn wants to develop, not just assemble products. Terry Gou, chief executive and the founder of Foxconn, acknowledges that such a massive diversification may take a long time.

“We need to put our money in long-term technology investments,” said Mr. Gou at its annual shareholders' meeting, reports IDG News Service. “Right now, making notebooks and other devices isn't worth it for us to manufacture.”

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Terry Gou, chief executive officer of Foxconn Electronics. Photo by Bloomberg.

Foxconn intends to hire at least 15 thousand of people in Taiwan to boost its research and development division, reports Sunday China Morning Post. At least five thousand of those people will be based at the company’s headquarters working on next-generation technologies.

The contract manufacturer will not produce Apple’s iWatch smart-watch, at least initially, since the Cupertino, California-based consumer electronics giant outsourced manufacturing of its first wearable device to Quanta Computer. However, Foxconn intends to develop its own wearable computing products akin to the iWatch. The devices will not only track physical activity and health conditions, but will also be accompanied by a special cloud service “to analyze and store the data.”

Robots is another area where Foxconn hopes to excel. Early this month Japanese company Softbank unveiled Pepper, a personal robot that Foxconn helped to develop and which it will manufacture. Pepper is designed to interact with humans, it can talk and detect people's emotions.

“I believe it will become a huge platform for human companionship,” said Mr. Gou, who also said that extra software services could be bundled with the robot.

Foxconn's CEO said that the company has also started to develop its own electric cars. The firm has no plans to compete against Tesla or other makers of high-end vehicles, its electric cars will have a target price of less than $15000 (£8804, €10989). Since cars require special manufacturing facilities, which Foxconn does not currently own, it is likely that the auto initiative will take many years to accomplish.

Earlier this year Foxconn teamed up with Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC), a China-based holding company of several automobile makers, to develop new batteries for electric cars.

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Apple, which outsources assembly of iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs to Foxconn, accounts for about 48 percent of Hon Hai’s revenue, according to Bloomberg Industries.

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KitGuru Says: It looks like robots and electric cars will be two big things in the future. While it is possible that companies like Foxconn and Asustek will be able to make competitive robots (especially if Google releases a software platform for such devices), it remains to be seen how successful Foxconn will be when it comes to cars. Traditional auto makers will definitely not welcome new rivals like Hon Hai Precision Industry and keeping in mind their financial prowess, dealership networks and huge IP portfolios, it does not look like it will be easy for the electronics giant even to enter the market.

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Foxconn to acquire chip designer Socle, set to develop own chips https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/foxconn-to-acquire-chip-designer-socle/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/foxconn-to-acquire-chip-designer-socle/#respond Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:26:26 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=175281 Foxconn Group, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, is set to take over Socle Technology, a developer of system-on-chip solutions. The buyout will bring additional capabilities to the holding also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry and will help it to gain more customers and diversify its business. Socle is a Taiwan based contract …

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Foxconn Group, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, is set to take over Socle Technology, a developer of system-on-chip solutions. The buyout will bring additional capabilities to the holding also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry and will help it to gain more customers and diversify its business.

Socle is a Taiwan based contract designer of system-on-chips, which is a licensee of various ARM technologies, including ARM Cortex MPCore processors, ARM Mali graphics, ARM11MP-S, ARM1176-S, ARM926EJ-S and ARM7EJ-S. The company specializes on development of highly-integrated chips for media tablets, media players/smartphones, telecommunication equipment and storage systems.

Foxconn already owns Ambit Microsystems, a developer of telecommunication microprocessors. With Socle, Foxconn will be able to offer fully-integrated platforms for various mobile electronics, including smartphones, tablets and other devices, including those for professional use.

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Foxconn manufacturing site. Image by Getty Images.

At present, companies likes Foxconn, Quanta, Arima and others not only produce various electronics, but also help to develop their internal architecture based on chips designed by companies like Intel Corp., AMD, Nvidia Corp., Qualcomm, MediaTek and many others. As Foxconn boosts its semiconductor design capabilities, it will eventually be able to provide not only design services, but also chips for various products.

Socle will remain an independent company, but with a new chief executive officer that will be appointed by Foxconn. Thanks to acquisition by the contract manufacturer of electronics, Socle will be able to work with with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC) and GlobalFoundries. Previously Socle could only cooperate with GlobalFoundries, which was a shareholder, reports DigiTimes web-site.

KitGuru Says: Looks like traditional system-on-chip designers are going to face some pressure when it comes to inexpensive system-on-chips.

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