Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple's iPod, will spend $1bn to set up a new factory complex in northern China, the local government in the region has announced.
The Taiwanese manufacturer's new plants will be in the same region as Intel's recently announced $2.5bn chip factory.
The factory will produce printed circuit boards and connectors for Foxconn's contract electronics manufacturing customers, according to reports in Taiwan's Economic Daily News (EDN) today.
While the company does not normally discuss details of its contract electronics manufacturing work, its customers in the past two years have included leading global brands such as Apple, Dell, Sony and HP.
Foxconn, the flagship brand name used by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry group, is also reported to be the manufacturer of Apple's iPhone, although neither company has confirmed the reports.
According to the announcement from China's Qin Huang Dao city government cited by EDN, Hon Hai chief executive Terry Guo has already signed an agreement to develop the factory site in the depressed industrial region.
At least 35,000 will be employed at the plant complex in the Qinhuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone, although this headcount appears relatively low by the standards of Hon Hai's Chinese operations.
The initial investment of more than $1bn will be spread over three years. Construction will begin before the end of this year.
Hon Hai already has several huge plants dotted throughout eastern and southern China's high tech manufacturing areas.
Another new factory complex that has just started construction in Wuhan, central China, will employ some 200,000 when it is complete, according to the EDN.
Showing posts with label ipod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ipod. Show all posts
iPhone inspires next generation iPod
BY ERIC BENDEROFF
Chicago Tribune
If you want to know what the next iPod will look like, go to Apple.com and watch the demo for the coming iPhone.
Since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, which goes on sale in June from Cingular Wireless, much has been said and written about how revolutionary it will be. That's all well and good, but one aspect has been overlooked: How will this impact the iPod?
The answer is, quite a bit. Already, Apple executives are calling the iPhone the best iPod the company has built. Do you think all that really cool technology, particularly the touch screen, only will be used on a phone that starts at $500?
Hardly. Put me on the record as saying you'll see a touch-screen iPod this fall, a few months after the buzz of the iPhone launch settles and a few months before the key holiday sales season kicks in.
Apple does not talk about new products before they are introduced, and it is no different when people at the company are asked what a new iPod could look like. But Apple cares about being an innovator, as well as protecting its bread-and-butter product line, so it would behoove Jobs to include iPhone's nifty new features in his top-of-the-line video-playing iPod.
What's at stake for Apple? Just continued market dominance.
The iPod is overdue for a change. By fall, it will be two years since Apple introduced the so-called fifth-generation iPod. That's the one that plays videos and was slightly upgraded last year with more storage and a marginally bigger screen. Call it the fifth-generation "A" version, if you like.
But the sixth generation is coming, and it will make millions of people feel better about not shelling out $500 for an iPhone. That iPhone will have 4 gigabytes of storage, while a $600 version will have 8 gb.
By comparison, a new iPod will have at least 80 gb of music, video and photo storage capability, like the current top model, and be priced at about $350. Historically, Apple has kept the price of its top product in that range, even as it provides more capabilities. The new iPod should be no different.
"I think it will be a more compelling product than the iPhone," said Rob Enderle, a technology analyst who agrees the next iPod is on the way. "There are a lot of things where a touch screen on a phone doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense, but on an iPod it could be absolutely stunning."
The touch-screen controls have wowed people who have seen demonstrations of the iPhone. Instead of using a scroll wheel to navigate through your songs, videos and photos, you just touch the screen. Use your finger for scrolling, then tap on the artist you want to hear. A list of songs and albums pop up.
Choose a song, and while it plays, the album art shows, just like on the fifth-generation iPods. But the iPhone takes it up a notch: Turned horizontally, that album art becomes part of "cover flow," where you can scroll through all the album art stored on your device.
Cover flow is borrowed from the recent iTunes software upgrade. It makes the music experience more visual, as if you are sifting through a collection of albums in a box. It is a far more interesting feature on a hand-held device than on a computer.
What else will be on the new iPod?
Another nice addition would be Bluetooth connectivity, so you can use wireless headphones with your iPod. That will be included in the iPhone for hands-free driving and listening to music.
With Bluetooth on an iPod, tech writers like this one will have to stop using phrases like "those ubiquitous white cords dangling from everyone's ears." Rather, we'll have to talk about how you can spot the cool kids with the new iPods because there are no more dangling cords.
Keep in mind that while Apple is preparing to dip its toe into the phone business, it already is shoulder deep in the music business. By the time 2007 ends, you can bet Apple will sell more new iPods than iPhones.
Chicago Tribune
If you want to know what the next iPod will look like, go to Apple.com and watch the demo for the coming iPhone.
Since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, which goes on sale in June from Cingular Wireless, much has been said and written about how revolutionary it will be. That's all well and good, but one aspect has been overlooked: How will this impact the iPod?
The answer is, quite a bit. Already, Apple executives are calling the iPhone the best iPod the company has built. Do you think all that really cool technology, particularly the touch screen, only will be used on a phone that starts at $500?
Hardly. Put me on the record as saying you'll see a touch-screen iPod this fall, a few months after the buzz of the iPhone launch settles and a few months before the key holiday sales season kicks in.
Apple does not talk about new products before they are introduced, and it is no different when people at the company are asked what a new iPod could look like. But Apple cares about being an innovator, as well as protecting its bread-and-butter product line, so it would behoove Jobs to include iPhone's nifty new features in his top-of-the-line video-playing iPod.
What's at stake for Apple? Just continued market dominance.
The iPod is overdue for a change. By fall, it will be two years since Apple introduced the so-called fifth-generation iPod. That's the one that plays videos and was slightly upgraded last year with more storage and a marginally bigger screen. Call it the fifth-generation "A" version, if you like.
But the sixth generation is coming, and it will make millions of people feel better about not shelling out $500 for an iPhone. That iPhone will have 4 gigabytes of storage, while a $600 version will have 8 gb.
By comparison, a new iPod will have at least 80 gb of music, video and photo storage capability, like the current top model, and be priced at about $350. Historically, Apple has kept the price of its top product in that range, even as it provides more capabilities. The new iPod should be no different.
"I think it will be a more compelling product than the iPhone," said Rob Enderle, a technology analyst who agrees the next iPod is on the way. "There are a lot of things where a touch screen on a phone doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense, but on an iPod it could be absolutely stunning."
The touch-screen controls have wowed people who have seen demonstrations of the iPhone. Instead of using a scroll wheel to navigate through your songs, videos and photos, you just touch the screen. Use your finger for scrolling, then tap on the artist you want to hear. A list of songs and albums pop up.
Choose a song, and while it plays, the album art shows, just like on the fifth-generation iPods. But the iPhone takes it up a notch: Turned horizontally, that album art becomes part of "cover flow," where you can scroll through all the album art stored on your device.
Cover flow is borrowed from the recent iTunes software upgrade. It makes the music experience more visual, as if you are sifting through a collection of albums in a box. It is a far more interesting feature on a hand-held device than on a computer.
What else will be on the new iPod?
Another nice addition would be Bluetooth connectivity, so you can use wireless headphones with your iPod. That will be included in the iPhone for hands-free driving and listening to music.
With Bluetooth on an iPod, tech writers like this one will have to stop using phrases like "those ubiquitous white cords dangling from everyone's ears." Rather, we'll have to talk about how you can spot the cool kids with the new iPods because there are no more dangling cords.
Keep in mind that while Apple is preparing to dip its toe into the phone business, it already is shoulder deep in the music business. By the time 2007 ends, you can bet Apple will sell more new iPods than iPhones.
Crave Podcast 19: The iPhone is here!
Join Chris Stevens, Rory Reid, Rupert Goodwins and Andrew Lim as they explore the latest developments in consumer tech and popular science. They discuss the future of the iPhone, the danger of sentient robots that may enslave us all, and put Microsoft Windows Vista on trial.
Our hapless team of gadget monkeys also take a look at the gadgets they saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and discuss whether a 'consumer' taser is morally acceptable.
Rupert Goodwins unleashes a completely unhinged rant against the iPhone and is quickly put in his place by the forces of good. Rory Reid makes a similarly disastrous defence of Windows Vista and is publically shamed in a ritual of humiliation not seen since the Middle Ages. Yes, geek-face, this is a good one. Happy listening!
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