Foxconn: Our hiring freeze has nothing to do with iPhone 5
Insists its not about just one client
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Apple's main manufacturing buddy Foxconn has frozen hiring at a Shenzhen plant and other factories across China, but denies it has anything to do with the fruity firm in particular.
The parts-manufacturer for tech firms ranging from Apple to Dell said today that it wasn't slowing down recruitment because of any particular client, after a Financial Times report suggested the hiring freeze was down to Apple.
"Due to an unprecedented rate of return of employees following the Chinese New Year holiday compared to years past, our company has decided to temporarily slow down our recruitment process," the company said in a statement reported by Reuters, AFP and others.
"This action is not related to any single customer and any speculation to the contrary is false and inaccurate."
Apple refused to comment.
The FT had reported that Foxconn was holding off on recruitment because production was slowing on Apple's latest mobe, the iPhone 5. Recruiters said that hiring had stopped for the iPhone and iPad production lines in Shenzhen, the company's largest plant with over 200,000 workers and also at Zhengzhou, which makes iPhones as well. Its plant in Taiyuan, where parts for the iPhone are made, and the plant in Chengdu, which makes the iPad, have also stopped looking for new hires.
Apple sold fewer iPhones than expected over the holidays at 47.8 million, sparking speculation that fanbois might finally be tiring of Jesus-mobe upgrades while Android gains market share. iPhones account for half of all Apple revenue so any Jesus-mobe saturation would be serious for the firm. ®
COMMENTS
Between the lines
"Due to an unprecedented rate of return of employees following the Chinese New Year holiday compared to years past, ...."
Translation: We were amazed when so many came back to us after we allowed them to leave the factory. The economy must be bad out there.
Re: last paragraph...
The article you quote states that "Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S together accounted for 1 in 5 of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q4 2012". Obviously that's impressive, but I don't see that you can really describe it as 'dominating the sales' in the way that they used to. Clearly Apple "own the profits" as you say, but since they don't seem to do much with it other than store it off-shore from the US so as to not pay tax, I'm not sure that this really matters much in terms of the article concerned.
I have owned both Apple and Android smartphones and currently own neither, so really I'm not deeply bothered, but as a 'neutral observer' it still seems to me that the market is distinctly shifting away from Cupertino and towards the little green robot guy. Perhaps I'm just wrong, I guess time will tell.
At any rate, I get the strong impression that you care more about this than I do so I'll leave you to it :).
Re: Yawn...
'up your sleeve', 'sell-by' Don't you have any new clichés either?
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