14 DAY TRIAL // Sources in Asia are reporting that Apple is hiring engineers for a Taiwan-based R&D center in an effort to develop products closer to the ODMs and component makers it does business with.
The company has already posted job openings for senior packaging engineers, reliability engineering managers, senior software instrumentation engineers, and other roles, reports DigiTimes.
Sources in Taiwan are telling the trade publication that Apple is planning to build a Research & Development team in the country “to develop products such as iPhone and has already attracted the attention of many IT engineers in Taiwan.”
“Apple may also establish a maintenance center for after-sales services,” market watchers speculate.
According to the same people, some of the factors behind Apple's decision to establish an R&D center in Taiwan are the low labor costs, the highly-talented engineers, and the fact that “Apple's cooperation with Taiwan's ODMs and component makers [is] expected to increase.”
Apple is also expanding its supply chain, adding Wistron and Compal Communications to the list of suppliers (next to Foxconn and Pegatron), the sources say.
The company needs all the manpower it can get if rumors about it expanding product line are true.
In addition to launching two new iPhones and several refreshed iPads this year, Apple is said to be coming out with a revolutionary iWatch and a television set in 2014.
Releasing all-new product categories requires tremendous testing efforts, not to mention that Apple is the type of company that develops and builds multiple types of products simultaneously.
Coming out in fall are two new iPhones, one made of plastic, the other made of aluminum like the iPhone 5, according to the latest rumors.
As for the new iPads, these will (likely) include a Retina-enabled iPad mini 2, and a slimmer and lighter 5th generation iPad with a 9.7-inch display and a narrower screen bezel.