Blomberg: Foxconn Now Gathering Manpower For iPhone 5S Production

Good news everybody, it is now reported that Foxconn has given the start to putting together a team of engineers to work on the next-generation iPhones’ production line, according to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Now the number of jobs reported to be hitting the job ads is quite astonishing, and we are speaking of a good number of tens of thousands members of staff to get going with the developing of the upcoming iPhone. Sources aware of the context have launched claims that the recruitment operation has been ongoing for over a month now and that its origins are traced back to Zhengzhou in the East of China.

We can correlate this to another topic previously discussed according to which a stop had been put on the recruitment process by Foxconn when it came to all of its spread Chinese factories. What stood at the core of this drastic decision was the high amount of workers that came back from China’s New Year break in comparison to the numbers that we met last year, and this was of course considered to have been triggered by the iPhone’s stagnation or even decrease in request, as normally happens over the last two quarters of the year. So Bloomberg highlights that although we did not get any clear confirmation from Zgengzhou official in terms of a demand  in workers and a number of actual extra hiring on the premises, it was admitted that a suggestion in terms of widening the teams of workers has been made by Foxconn.

And the news on the topic have been taken over by The Wall Street Journal as well, who have been a bit more accurate in details and confirmed that Foxgonn gave the start for the hiring of assembly line workers on the next generation iPhone and that it managed to gather no less than 10,000 employees per week since late March. They quoted a Zhengzhou official who was directly involved in the process and who confirmed the rumors and that the mass-production stages of the product have been activated, so the teams are currently full of activity.

Analyzing the reported articles, you can not fail but see the obvious connection between both publications – that Apple is indeed getting ready for the upcoming next-gen iPhone device. Having set the records straight with the main aspects, another one comes to mind – when shall the actual device be released? Well the Wall Street Journal marks the 2nd year quarter as the start date for the iPhone 5S manufacturing, and it also suggests that we should be expecting the same when it comes to the low-budgeted model that should boost up the company’s success in rising countries too. Correlated to this prognosis we must also bring to the table Ming-Chi Kuo’s recently released statement forwarded to his clients according to which Apple would be working on fixing a few tech issues behind the production process which would automatically lead to a delay in the launch of the up-and-coming products up to sometime in the autumn of the year, when we would most likely get our hands on the new iPhone and iPad mini.

To get back to the main topic and to give you an overall idea on the numbers of employees behind the process, we can speak of almost a million and a half Chinese employees, with approximately three hundred thousands added in the previous year. Secondly, it has been revealed that when it came to Foxconn’s revenue, Apple brought in over half of it with a percentage revolving around 60-70%.

Perhaps indicating that the rumors of the upcoming new iPhone model are getting closer and closer, a 19% decrease in sales has been registered by the contract manufacturer, and Foxconn can consider it the major decline it witnessed over the last 13 years. To better explain the process, the highest sales number are registered in the first fiscal quarter after the release, and Apple in average updates its devices once each year. The next quarter marks an increase in terms of orders, then the last 2 quarters witness a gradual decline in this sense.

So now that rumors seem to be one step closer to reality, all there is left to do is wait for their next move. Keeping fingers crossed to find out more.