Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it is developing more than five devices, including smartphones and tablets, that run the Firefox mobile operating system in an effort to provide customers with new products powered by alternative, open-source software.
Foxconn’s comments came after it signed a memorandum of understanding with Firefox developer Mozilla Corp. Foxconn operates flagship company Hon Hai Precision Industry Ltd Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, which assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc.
“We will develop a series of devices from phones and tablets to TVs and outdoor signage, that are connected to the Internet,” Foxconn Innovation Digital System Business Group general manager Young Liu (劉揚偉) told a media briefing in Taipei.
“To cope with growing Web demand, we think we need to invest greater resources to facilitate the development of a third operating system in addition to Android and iOS [of Apple]. We need to provide a better solution for our customers,” Liu said.
Liu declined to reveal the timetable for the product launches of the new devices, saying that it would be the decision of Foxconn’s customers.
“Hon Hai will not make any branded products,” Liu said. “We hope our solution can help PC brands become more competitive in the post-PC era.”
The Firefox operating system is based on HTML5, one of the main markup languages for creating Web pages and information that can be displayed in a Web brewer.
Firefox, which has a 20 percent market share, is the second-biggest Web browser around the globe, after Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
As part of its efforts to facilitate the development of the Firefox system, Foxconn planned to hire between 500 and 1,000 engineers by the end of this year in Greater Kaohsiung to help develop the Firefox-based operating system, applications and backstage management system, which process data and documents, Liu said.
Foxconn is scheduled to set up a data center in Greater Kaohsiung by the end of the year, he added.
Mozilla senior vice president Li Gong (宮力) said 18 telecom operators and five electronics producers, including Chinese handset maker Huawei Technology (華為), Japan’s Sony and LG of South Korea have announced that they planned to develop devices running the Firefox system.
Among them, Chinese handset makers ZTE Inc (中興) and TCL, which sells handsets under the Alcatel brand, were scheduled to launch their Firefox-based devices in the summer, Gong said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS