When most Western Apple owners hear the word Foxconn, they probably think suicide. However, the brother of Foxconn’s founder hopes to change that by opening 100 Apple stores in China over the next three years.
With China expected to become the largest market for PC sales by 2013 and Foxconn already manufacturing components for Apple products, T.C. Gou will open stores selling Macs, iPads, iPods and other Apple gadgets. The stores will be in addition to the 20 “Studio A” Apple Premium Resellers stores already operated by Taiwan-based Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn.
“The rationale is since they help make the products, they can also help sell them, Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst Lu Chia-lin told Business Week Tuesday.
Apple already sees China as a target for expansion, planning retail locations throughout the Asian nation. Despite lending just 1 percent to Foxconn’s bottom-line, news of the planned retail outlets sent Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co. up 6.9 percent in trading.
Terry Gou, the 59-year-old founder of Foxconn, has attempted to combat the image of workers jumping from dormitories by offering several measures. Among the attempts: installing suicide-prevention nets, upping employee wages and a mass exodus of workers not connected to iPhone assembly.
[via 9to5Mac and BusinessWeek]
