When Foxconn revenues started to take a slide during the first quarter of 2013 due to a significant drop in the sales of Apple’s products, the Taiwanese company decided to shift gears by looking beyond the California-based tech giant to generate business. Foxconn formed a partnership with the free software community Mozilla to jointly produce a Firefox-based smartphone for the company. Due to the deal, Foxconn decided to hire 3,000 coders to create HTML5 apps for the Firefox OS. The Taiwan-based company already has more than 1.2 million workers other than the 3,000 newly hired developers all housed in a large complex considered to be a city in itself.
However, initially Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision, decided to hire only 1,000 developers, who would only look after Mozilla’s newborn platform but after re-evaluating the significance of the new operating system the company realised that they needed a bigger workforce. As a result of that Foxconn added 3,000 coders to its huge army of workers. Now the new staff members will enable the company to create Firefox devices and apps.
According to Foxconn it will develop five different Firefox-based devices. But Foxconn is not alone in this race, as Samsung, Sony, LG, ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel have also joined hands with Mozilla to produce smartphones that will be powered by Firefox. In addition to this, 18 operators from various parts of world will make the inexpensive devices available and it is expected that the first Firefox-based device will hit the stores in the near future.
This was not the only partnership that Foxconn has formed to reduce its dependence on Apple. The company has also formed an alliance with a local telecom operator Taiwan Mobile to produce low-cost smartphones under the name of the carrier. The name of these inexpensive smartphones is A5 and they will help the Taiwanese manufacturer to significantly increase its presence in the local market as well.
The low-cost handset is expected to boast a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 4.3-inch display and 1GHz dual-core processor. As far as the price of A5 is concerned it will be around $133. Apart from manufacturing smartphones for two companies, Foxconn is also has plans to produce various electronic devices under its own name. This will bring the company out of the curtain, as it will itself become a brand and a manufacturer.
Now let’s see how these new initiatives by Foxconn will impact the revenue and repute of the company.
Source: PhoneArena
Photo: DigitalTrends
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