RIM to Partner with Foxconn for Smartphone Manufacturing

It seems that Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) could become a manufacturing partner of Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry. The Canadian company is reported to be looking for an EMS partner that will produce its smartphones in Asia Pacific, and the Taiwan-based manufacturer is the main candidate for the job, sources in the Taiwan handset industry have stated, notes DigiTimes.

Currently, RIM already has partnerships with EMS companies like Elcoteq and Celestica, yet the phone maker is reported to be looking for a deal with a new EMS firm so as to be able to ramp up its output to meet increasing market demand and to further expand its market share, according to the same sources. As many of you might already know, the company announced that it expected to see strong revenues during the ongoing year, even if the worldwide market had been affected by the downgrading economical environment.

Foxconn was reported only a few days ago to be on the verge of inking a deal with another mobile phone maker, Nokia, this time for the manufacturing of netbooks. In case rumors regarding a possible deal with RIM prove true, the manufacturer will be able to turn into the most comprehensive OEM smartphone maker, since it will produce devices running under all major mobile operating systems available at the moment, including Windows Mobile, Android, Web OS, iPhone OS or BlackBerry OS.

Research in Motion is currently one of the largest mobile phone makers in the world, and the second smartphone vendor globally, after Nokia, with a market share of 18 percent. During its fiscal 2009, from March 2008 to February 2009, the company managed to sell more than 26 million smartphones all around the world, registering revenues of $11.07 billion, a growth of 84 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, company data show.