14 DAY TRIAL // The company that assembles the iPhone and iPad for Apple is making its first foray into wearable computing by introducing a smartwatch capable of communicating with the user’s smartphone.
“With such a device, you can keep your phone in your pocket and simply check all kinds of messages on your watch,” said Foxconn CEO, Terry Gou, at a shareholder meeting this week.
A subsidiary of mother company Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the controversial Asian electronics manufacturer which assembles Apple’s hot selling iDevices, like the iPhone.
As Apple is trying to reduce its reliance on Foxconn amid worker suicides and other negative factors, the assembler is trying to reduce its own dependency on manufacturing contracts by developing and selling its own hardware.
As such, Foxconn is launching a wireless smartwatch that integrates with the iPhone, allowing users to check phone calls, messages, email, and Facebook posts.
The watch can be used to measure the user's vital signs, such as heartbeat and respiration and, “If the measuring results are not within optimal range, the device will automatically give suggestions to the user about how to improve them,” according to Foxconn executives cited by Want China Times.
To achieve these capabilities Foxconn’s wireless communications division and its medical research groups have been working closely together.
And they’re not stopping here. According to Terry Gou, Foxconn engineers plan to leverage this collaboration between teams to add new features, including fingerprint identification, something Apple itself has been rumored to implement in future devices.
Although Apple takes its time to perfect any new product it rolls out, the company is undoubtedly losing precious time as competitors like Google, Samsung and now Foxconn rush to flood the market with wearable computing solutions.
Only time will tell if Apple’s solution is better. All eyes will be on Tim Cook this fall when the company promises to awe the world with exciting new products.