In the 80s of the 20th century, Gou founded Foxconn in Shenzhen, China, which was initially a small factory. However, since the beginning of OEM services for Apple in the 90s, Foxconn's fate has been closely tied to Apple. Apple launched a series of best-selling products, such as iPhones and iPads, and Foxconn quickly grew to become the world's largest electronics OEM with Apple's orders. Foxconn's scale and influence are entirely dependent on Apple's support.
However, in recent years, as Apple's industrial chain has shifted to India, Foxconn has begun to work to expand its business in India, promising to create 500,000 jobs. However, Foxconn underestimated the difficulties of operating in India.
First of all, the quality of Indian employees is uneven, highly mobile, and does not match Apple's high standards and high quality requirements, resulting in substandard product quality production.
Secondly, India's infrastructure is backward, the chain system is not perfect, and it is unable to guarantee stable power and other resources. These factors have led to inefficiencies at Foxconn's Indian factory that cannot meet Apple's needs. As a result, Foxconn not only failed to get more orders from Apple, but instead reduced the number of orders due to product quality problems.
Faced with Foxconn's poor performance in India, Apple began to turn to Foxconn's rival, the Tata Group. The Tata Group is a local Indian company that has gradually risen to become one of Apple's largest OEM companies in India through years of development.
In 2006, the Tata Group began to deploy in India, and through the acquisition of the Indian factory of Wistron, a Taiwanese electronics foundry, it obtained orders for production for Apple, becoming Apple's third largest Indian foundry. In order to snatch more orders from Apple, the Tata Group began to recruit Foxconn's process technicians with high salaries and launched a special talent training program. With its strong strength and determination, the Tata Group is bound to seize more orders from Foxconn, posing a huge threat to Foxconn's development in India.
Foxconn's prospects in India are getting bleaker. In July this year, Foxconn's $19.5 billion Indian semiconductor project with India's Vedanta Group failed, and the two sides were forced to terminate the cooperation. This is a huge blow to Foxconn. The project was originally intended to help Foxconn get more orders for Apple chips, but now it is only a dream. Semiconductors are the core of the electronics industry, and Foxconn's layout in India is in trouble, so some analysts believe that Foxconn's glory days are over.
Looking ahead, Foxconn faces dual pressure from Apple and local Indian companies. Apple will increase its support for new companies such as Tata in India, while local companies in India are also actively rising, directly squeezing Foxconn's orders. If Foxconn is unable to reinvent its strengths, it will soon be marginalized. Foxconn needs to rethink its past hubris and re-examine its development strategy, otherwise its position as a global OEM giant will be in jeopardy.
Foxconn's woes in India highlight its dependence on Apple and its challenges in the Indian market. Foxconn needs to seriously rethink and adjust its development strategy to cope with the dual pressure from Apple and competitors. Only by improving product quality and efficiency, and strengthening cooperation with Apple, will Foxconn be able to turn the tide again and maintain its position in the global foundry field. At the same time, Foxconn should also change its thinking and look for other markets and partners to reduce its dependence on Apple and achieve more stable and sustainable development.