Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) plans to connect its supply chain partners’ industrial data within the next three years and develop 8K-resolution products to speed up the firm’s corporate transformation, chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said yesterday.
“This is the second phase of Hon Hai’s corporate transformation. The work from now to 2020 will be very important for us to completely become a big data, artificial intelligence and “smart” manufacturing company,” Gou said in his opening remark at the company’s annual carnival for employees at the Nangang Exhibition Hall.
More than 30,000 employees and their families from 32 different countries attended Hon Hai’s eight-hour carnival.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Gou said he expects more employees to be dispatched to the US, Europe, India and Southeast Asian nations in the coming years, as Hon Hai continues to expand its global manufacturing network.
“We plan to host a ground-breaking ceremony for our manufacturing base in Wisconsin in the US by the end of April,” Gou told reporters, adding that it is snowing in Wisconsin, which is not suitable for ground-breaking.
Hon Hai had said that it plans to invest US$10 billion to set up a “smart” manufacturing facility in Wisconsin that focuses on 5G connectivity devices and 8K-resolution displays.
Gou and Sharp Corp president and chief executive officer Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) have been promoting 8K-resolution products in the belief that the wide use of 8K-resolution displays, cameras and content would play a crucial role in collecting and analyzing big data.
Hon Hai is in talks with RED.com LLC, a digital cinema camera manufacturer that worked with Netflix Inc to shoot the popular House of Cards in 4K, to invest in the firm or set up a joint venture to develop 8K products, Gou said, without elaborating.
Tai said he hopes Sharp would be able to reduce the price and weight of 8K consumer cameras, in an effort to accelerate the penetration rate of 8K products in the market.
Tai added that Sharp board member Young Liu (劉揚偉), who doubles as Hon Hai’s semiconductor subgroup head, is pushing toward a technological breakthrough for optical sensors in 8K cameras, which would make them smaller.
“I hope I will be able to introduce a lighter, smaller 8K camera that costs less than NT$200,000 [US$6,802.72] a year from now,” Tai told reporters.
On Friday, Hon Hai reported revenue of NT$400.6 billion for last month, which expanded 16.01 percent annually, but plunged 40.66 percent from the previous month.
Hon Hai attributed the decline to the weakness of its consumer electronics products, which include iPhones, amid traditional seasonality.
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