Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturing company Foxconn Technology, better known for iPhone component supplier, is planning a move into robots, electric cars, wearables, cloud computing and networking technologies.
Foxconn products for Apple and Sony is now looking to diversify beyond smartphone electronics and white box IT equipment.
Speaking during its annual shareholders’ meet Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said, "When a typhoon comes, even a pig can fly."
The company is already partnering with Japan based SoftBank to build its emotion-reading robot called Pepper which was unveiled in 5th June.
In automotive sector, Foxconn is making touch screens for US based Telsa Motors, for its cars, and now plans expand its cooperation further.
The company has also announced plans to make its own electric cars which it looks to sell at a price of less than $15,000 and in this regard the company is teaming up with China-based Beijing Automotive Group for supply batteries for the cars.
Foxconn, which generates about 40% to 50% of its revenue from assembling Apple, expects that expanding beyond smartphone components will provide it new revenue streams as the company’s revenue witnessing slump in recent past.
Gou told shareholders that, "Please be patient, don’t be in a hurry."
"I’m also the biggest shareholder, so if it’s bad for Hon Hai it’s also bad for me," Gou added.
In order to strengthen its research base, Foxconn plans recruit at least 15,000 including 5000 people at its Taipei headquarter to ramp up its research effort for the development of new technologies, according to Bloomberg.
Foxconn is also investing $5.5m in US based wearable high-tech hearing aid equipment maker Soundhawk, which makes listening system that allows people to hear what they want to hear cancelling out noise.
Soundhawk hearing aid looks like a Bluetooth headset which can give voice clarity even in noisy environment.
