14 DAY TRIAL // The struggle that Foxconn has been forced to deal with in China convinced Apple it’s time to start looking for a second company that would assemble the iPhone Pro models.
And according to a report from TrendForce, that company is none other than Luxshare.
As a result, the companies in charge of assembling the iPhone 15 series will be Foxconn and Luxshare, though the latter will only be in charge of the Pro Max version.
TrendForce says Foxconn has been struggling with the current conditions in China, in some cases with its production not even rising above 70 percent.
“The operation of Foxconn’s major manufacturing base in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou has been affected by a local COVID-19 outbreak since this October. As a result, the capacity utilization rate of the base has yet to risen above the level of 70%. The outbreak in Zhengzhou was at its worst just as Apple was trying to ramp up sales of the new iPhone models for this year (i.e., the iPhone 14 series) to a peak,” recent research reads.
“Due to the recent outbreak at Zhengzhou, Apple has also made decision of employing Luxshare as one of the assemblers for the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, Luxshare’s only iPhone assembly plant is located in China. In Vietnam, Luxshare has a plant for assembling Apple-related accessories, but the company currently has no plan for setting up a new iPhone production line there,” TrendForce continues.
For the time being, however, it’s pretty clear that Apple wants to reduce reliance on Chinese operations, so the company will continue to invest in production power beyond the borders of the country.
iPhone 15 is projected to see the daylight in the fall of 2023, so expect further news on this front in the first half of the next year.