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Foxconn has been associated with Apple for a long time and many consider it to be an ‘Apple’ company. The reality is that Foxconn Electronics survives because of the work it does for Apple but they are expanding their business in an attempt to diversify and reduce their reliance on Apple.
According to sources of Digitimes.com, Foxconn’s new customers include Chinese smart-phone makers such as “Xiaomi, Meitu, Oppo and Meizu.” I asume that the margin of profit with these companies could be potentially much higher than with Apple because very few other companies have such high production standards and they will likely be able to save money by adhering to lower quality practices.
I’m not suggesting they will make horrible phones for the Chinese companies because Foxconn is certainly capable of high quality work, but it would be highly unexpected for the work they do for Chinese companies to be at the same level.
The market in China is so big that even a small company making phones for a niche market can have more customers than a small country will have people. Foxconn’s aggressive move to work with these Chinese companies is smart for them and if they ever get to the point that they could cease making tech for Apple then I wonder how much things would change for them.
They could go back to using underage workers, for example, without the international community even knowing about it. Except they are in China and that kind of thing is likely already happening right now anyway, if not at Foxconn then at so many other factories. This is why Apple made such a big deal out of moving to production in the USA for Mac Pros and why many consumers like to know where things are made. For the time being Foxconn will remain one of the biggest producers of Apple devices anywhere in the world.
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