Foxconn
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| Type | Public TSE: 2317 (SEHK: 2038) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974 |
| Headquarters | Taipei, Taiwan |
| Area served | Global |
| Key people | Terry Gou (Chairman/President) |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Products | Various |
| Revenue | ▲$51,8 billion USD (2008 [1]) |
| Operating income | ▲$1.5 billion USD (2005) |
| Net income | ▲$2,36 billion USD (2008 [1]) |
| Employees | 550,000 (2008 [1]) |
| Website | Foxconn Technology Group |
Foxconn (富士康) is the trade name of the Taiwan based firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Ltd.) (LSE: HHPD). Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide, and mainly manufactures on contract to other companies. Although sometimes referred to as an original equipment manufacturer, Foxconn would be more accurately described as an original design manufacturer.[citation needed] Among other things, Foxconn produces the Mac mini, the iPod and the iPhone for Apple Computer; Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer retailers Dell, Inc. and Hewlett Packard; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo;the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, and Amazon Kindle.[2][3] [4]
The company was founded in 1974 as a manufacturer of plastic products (notably connectors) by Terry Gou, who remains its CEO. It has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since 1991.
Foxconn mainly manufactures in China; in 2007 it employed 450,000 people there and was China's largest exporter.[citation needed] The company opened its first manufacturing plant in China in 1988, a factory in Shenzhen that is now the company's largest, with more than 270,000 employees.[3] Beginning in 1994, Foxconn purchased development centres in the United States and Japan. The years 1998 and 1999 saw the establishment of additional manufacturing plants in the UK and the US. As of 2007, the company and its subsidiaries owned plants in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, India and Vietnam.[3]
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Products
Cases
Foxconn makes a range of computer cases designed to appeal to system builders. Apple Inc. vertically integrated with Foxconn in 1986.
Motherboards
Foxconn designs and manufactures several different motherboards, with many being sold to OEM distributors such as Dell and HP. Starting in 2003 the company has produced retail boards under its own brand name. Foxconn also makes PGA/ZIF sockets used by other OEMs such as ASUS[citation needed].
Graphics cards
In March 2006, Foxconn branched into the manufacture of graphics cards, starting with a GeForce 7900GTX (branded as PX7900GTX) at clock speeds of 550 MHz / 1320 MHz for the core and memory respectively, but with intentions to market both NVIDIA and ATi boards. Foxconn also released the very popular Foxconn 7900GS, one of the most popular graphics cards on the market. The Foxconn 7900GS has a large user fanbase, because of its low price and high clockspeeds. Foxconn has released a 768MB 8800GTX card as well, with clock speeds comparable to the established competition.
Computer cooling solutions
Foxconn manufactures stock heat sink fans for some AMD processors, including but not limited to their K8N Dual Core Opterons.
Consoles
Foxconn is the OEM for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
Apple Products
Foxconn is one of the OEMs for iPod nanos, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs and the iPhone.
Computers
PCAs and Chassis.
Cell Phones
Apple iPhones, Foxconn OEMs Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson cell phones.
Other Devices
Amazon's reading device, the Kindle.
Cell phones are produced in the WLBG Foxconn division. (WLBG = Wireless Business Group)
Home networking devices that compete with products made by companies such as Netgear.
Foxconn produces Nokia phonesets in Hungary at the industrial park in Komárom, next to Nokia's central European factory.
Ugobe's pleo robot
Other brands
Foxconn also operate under the brand name of Leadtek , which also focuses on the hardware-orientated consumer market.
Criticism
Employment practices
In June 2006, allegations of Foxconn operating abusive employment practices came to light as reported by Mail that were later denied by Foxconn.[5][6] Apple launched an investigation into such claims.[7] The result was that the claims of mistreatment of employees were judged by the Apple inspection team to be largely unfounded, but the inspection team also discovered that at peak production times some of the employees were working more hours than Apple's acceptable "Code of Conduct" limit of 60 hours, and 25% of the time workers did not get at least one day off each week[1]. These same workers complained there was not enough overtime in off peak periods. The auditing team also found that workers had been punished by being made to stand to attention for long periods[2], whilst the team found that this practice was not widespread, it should also be remembered that all junior employees are subjected to military-style drill[3] at least as part of their initial training. The audit also noted that "some aspects of workplace auditing (such as health and safety) lie beyond our current expertise".
Although admitted it makes workers do an extra 80 hours overtime per month while the local labor law only permits 36 hours[4], Foxconn are now suing the journalists (Wang You and Weng Bao of China Business News). The demand was for $3.77 million originally and have lodged a successful Chinese court ruling to have the journalists' assets frozen. [8] Many think the astronomical demands and the court ruling were absurd.[9] Reporters Without Borders sent a letter to Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs to implore Foxconn to drop the case [10]. Later Foxconn reduced the demand to a symbolic 1 yuan (12 U.S. cents), withdrew the request to freeze the journalists' personal assets, and initiated legal proceedings to sue their employer China Business News. Many have heralded these turn of events as evidence of mass media and negative publicity forcing the hand of big business; leading them to a more appropriate course of action.[11]
ACPI functionality with Linux
On July 25, 2008, a user of Ubuntu Linux[12] claimed that the BIOS in the G33M and G33M-S motherboards from Foxconn contained references to Linux in its ACPI DSDT and interpreted this as an attempt to change behaviour under the Linux OS. Further investigation[5] showed that the only Linux-specific code in the BIOS had not been run since Linux version 2.6.9.
Foxconn customer support initially claimed that "the motherboard only supported Windows Vista"[13]. This caused a wave of protest[14], resulting in Foxconn releasing an updated BIOS[15] to improve Linux compatibility. Foxconn has also said that it plans to repair all other Foxconn-branded motherboards, and to test Linux alongside Windows in the future.[16].
Investigation revealed the issue was caused by the American Megatrends BIOS assuming that the operating system would clear the ACPI WAK_STS flag on resume[6], causing the BIOS to interpret a reboot as an attempted resume from memory. The same issue was present in motherboards from other manufacturers using the same BIOS. A short patch to the Linux kernel to work around this issue was submitted upstream[7].
References
- ^ a b c "2008 Global 500: #132 Hon Hai Precision Industry", Fortune , 2008
- ^ "Inside Apple's iPod Factories", MacWorld website, June 12, 2006
- ^ a b c The Forbidden City of Terry Gou, The Wall Street Journal, 11 August 2007
- ^ "Front Company and OEM for Amazon Kindle is...", CrunchGear, 19 November 2007
- ^ "iPod City: inside Apple's iPod factories" AppleInsider, 12 June, 2006
- ^ "Foxconn: iPod sweatshop claims a 'vicious attack'", AppleInsider, June 19, 2006
- ^ "Apple begins audit on iPod sweatshop claims", AppleInsider, June 20, 2006
- ^ "Foxconn sues Chinese journalists over iPod factory story" ilounge, 2006
- ^ Shenzhen court ruling on Foxconn case "absurd": experts Xinhua, 2006
- ^ Apple Computer urged to intercede for two reporters who exposed bad conditions at supplier’s plants, Reporters Without Borders
- ^ "iPod Factory Just Kidding About Destroying Reporters' Lives", Techdirt, 2006
- ^ "Foxconn deliberately sabotaging BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI support" Ubuntu Forums, 24 July, 2008
- ^ "A possible bug in Foxconn boards BIOS affects Linux ACPI". Hardware & Laptops. ubuntuforums.org (2008-07-24). Retrieved on 2008-07-27. Contains user-posted private correspondence between a user and Foxconn costumer support, quoted in the cited Ubuntu Forums page.
- ^ "MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux".
- ^ "Foxconn releases updated BIOS for G33 motherboards.".
- ^ "Zune Negotiations with FoxConn".
External links
- Official website
- foxconnchannel.com
- Inside Apple's iPod factories
- Mac Rumors: New MacBooks from Foxconn?
- Get The Latest News And Data Regarding Foxconn (the registered tradename of Hon Hai)
- Fortune's 2008 Global 500: #132 Hon Hai Precision Industry
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