46% of Foxconn revenue comes from Apple (they manufacture iPhones) also Kindles, Xbox, PlayStation 4, Wii U, BlackBerries, lots of of Google's hardware, many Cisco's routers etc.
I disagree. Foxconn employees are employees of Foxconn in name only. They are effectively employees of Apple. No Apple hardware would be produced at the price point, in the quantity needed if Foxconn did not exist. So imo, the revenue per employee of Apple as we are talking about is skewed badly.
And besides, isn't Apple something like 0.001% of Chinese manufacturing output? Apple isn't the problem; if anything Apple may well be the strongest force for positive change at Foxconn.
You never know when they might falter one quarter, with so much riding on so few products. If there's another Foxconn flaw in the hardware for the next iphone or ipad, for example, or what if Steve Jobs leaves, for example, who knows. Labor in China is getting more expensive, too, so Foxconn is looking to India and Vietnam, and they've already complained about how 'difficult' the iphone 5 is to build. Of course a bad quarter still won't seriously damage Apple since it has so much cash in reserve.
Also, the "make iPhones" note in HN submission title is a touch misleading considering Foxconn also makes pretty much everything else when it comes to electronics. I've stopped counting motherboard components I've seen with their logo on it.
I'm amazed people still trot this out. Foxconn has more employees than many mid-sized cities. Their per-capita suicide rate is lower than that of China as a whole. They make electronics for many of the big consumer electronics manufacturers, not just Apple.
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