Foxconn contracted for Microsoft, Amazon smartphones

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Foxconn contracted for Microsoft, Amazon smartphones: report
Staff Reporter 2012-12-01 16:33

Windows smartphones in Tokyo. (Photo/Xinhua)

Sources from Foxconn suppliers say the world's largest contract manufacturer has received orders from Microsoft and Amazon for smartphones to be launched in the middle of next year. Foxconn has declined to comment on the report.

Microsoft reportedly plans to launch its own-brand smartphones following the launch of its Surface tablet PC. The smartphone will use the Windows 8 operating system, according to technology news websites eWeek and Digitimes.

Sources quoted by iFanr, a Chinese technology news website, also reported that Foxconn has been manufacturing Microsoft's Windows 8 smartphone, according to Digitimes.

 

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Foxconn snaps up workers for iPhone 5 assembly line in Taiyuan
Staff Reporter 2012-12-01 08:48

Police at Foxconn's factory in Taiyuan on Sept. 23 after a fight broke out between workers and security guards. (Photo/CNS)

Cranking up production of the iPhone 5, Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant that assembles Apple's products, is frantically recruiting workers outside one of its factories in Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi in northern China, reports the Chinese-language Beijing News.

To fill its labor shortage, Foxconn in Taiyuan is currently recruiting applicants without ID and arranges for candidates to take a physical check in the morning, an aptitude exam in the afternoon and check in to the workers' dormitory in the evening to join the workforce of one of the world's biggest enterprises within a day to dive straight into a routine of factory, canteen, dormitory.

According to the company's regulations, the base monthly pay for a employee during their trial period is 1,800 yuan (US$290), working eight hours per day and 21.75 days per month.

A survey in March however revealed that a typical Foxconn worker works over 60 hours a week on average, earning monthly pay between 2,257 yuan (US$360) and 2,872 yuan (US$460), some workers describing themselves as zombies, according to the Beijing News.

Though negative reports about Foxconn tend to allege the practice of forced overtime, in reality it may be that the workers themselves are anxious to work all the hours they can get for extra money: regular overtime offers 1.5 times pay, with double time for weekends and triple for holidays.

Although the work is repetitive and boring, many sign up for extra hours nonetheless. One employee said she worked 80 extra hours in October, making her pay up to 3,500 yuan (US$560), almost double her basic wage.

As for workers being bullied by the security staff, this too appears to have changed after a high-profile fight broke out in September. The factory now demands its guards not respond with physical force even if they are verbally abused or attacked. "Security has become the disadvantaged minority in the factory," one senior guard was quoted by the newspaper as saying.