iPhone manufacturing partner Foxconn is in the process of hiring 100,000 new workers in order to ramp up iPhone 6 production, according to a new report from Taiwanese Economic Daily. Another iPhone manufacturer, Pegatron, is also said to be ramping up hiring in anticipation of the new smartphone.
Hiring frenzies like this are not uncommon as new iPhone models prepare to enter production, but in the case of Foxconn the figure represents a new record number of jobs.
According to the report, Foxconn is reportedly responsible for producing 70% of iPhone 6 orders. The report claims that the device will enter mass production in July. Leaked dummies have already given us an idea of what the phone will look like, including the LCD for the rumored 5.5-inch model.
As has been previously reported, two models of the iPhone 6 are expected to go on sale later this year. The smaller 4.7″ display will reportedly be available around September, while the larger 5.5″ version will be available sometime after.
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Come on 100,000 new workers? get real …
This is China. They already have 1m3+ workers. Come on, get real…
I thought by this time more robots would replace workers at Foxconn. I bet the robots are hard to work with.
Using robots to assemble components are one thing but it’s unlikely robots will ever do final assembly for Apple products, at least any time soon.
That is the most ugly back I’ve seen.. It’s like a bad joke.. one where Jonny stepped out for 5 minutes and his assistances swapped out a bad design as a joke and he never double checked..
I completely agree, its hideous!! But, I still have my doubts it will look like this, unless nobody cared in Apple this time around.
I’m trying to be an optimist and say/hope the actual finished design looks much better than that, and I cite a picture of the prototype silver (or perhaps it was the gold) iPhone 5S which looked ugly on the back when I say that.
I wouldn’t expect Ive to approve a phone design that looks that hideous but IF that is the case, I’ll be looking very hard at the black model in hopes that those lines don’t stand out as much.
Keep comments like this in your head until you see the REAL product ;)
Ive has made his fair share of ugly designs, and the design team works as a team. The “good” ones you reference are a team effort as well as this ugly thing.
I’ve been thinking about the ugly back issue a bit.
I believe that the thick “antenna lines” are there to show the case manufacturers where they cannot place any metal in a case design in order that the case does not cause signal loss. This is similar to the current 5s design where they hide the antennas in those areas. The “curved glass” may be referring to two pieces of glass on the top and bottom of the back of the phone. With the newly curved design, these top and bottom glass sections will need to be curved to match the shape of the back and inset to make them flush. In the end, I suspect the final iPhone 6 will look much like a rounded version of the current 5s design.
I’ve made a rough mockup of what this may look like. Take a looksy:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uvqp0drpzoydq9w/apple-iphone-6-mockup-curved-glass.png
Apple should make an iPhone with all aluminum casing without the spaces for antennas. It’s rumored that the new iPhone has a design inspired by the iPhone 5c, iPod touch and iPhone 5s, but the back should be MacBook Pro/Air inspired too. Wouldn’t it be beautiful for an iPhone to have a solid case made of aluminum.
And how would that work for the signals to get through? They need the little glass windows and the antenna breaks for the thing to work.
When something doesn’t work, Apple creates a way for it to work. They found a way on the iPad. Why can’t they place the antennas on the front of the phone?
@kevin3stuckey: Well they aren’t magicians either. You might want to note that they are pretty much doing as close to what you ask for this year in fact.
The glass windows have been treated so as to appear to be aluminium, and give the phone the general appearance of being all-aluminium. The antenna breaks are still necessary though.
As for putting them on the front, the display panel usually has a metal backing plate to eliminate interference from the radios.
>>Apple should make an iPhone with all aluminum casing without the spaces for antennas.
Except that can’t work. Otherwise they would.
i won’t spend a dollar if next iPhone comes with the rumoured back design. it’s ugly and i’m sure apple designers are not that bad. apple has always taken the design part very seriously and this back cover doesn’t fit with the history. i mean neat and clear is APPLE’
I’ve often wondered how many workers Samsung must have for smartphone assembly because they ship/sell twice as many smartphones as Apple does on a consistent basis. I’d imagine they’d require a much larger workforce.
Not to mention the Samsung parts that other companies rely on.
Personally, I’ll take this new info with a grain of salt.