Foxconn Plans to Begin iPad Assembly in Brazil Starting November
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Posted April 12, 2011 at 1:15pm by iClarified
Foxconn is planning to begin assembling Apple's iPad tablet PC at its plants in Brazil by end-November, according to Aloizio Mercadente, Brazil's science and technology minister.
Reuters reports that Foxconn Technology Group is also considering investing $12 billion in Brazil to assemble monitors, according to Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.
"You've got an ample range of investments that go from $300 to $400 million to $12 billion over 5 to 6 years in the case of Foxconn," Rousseff said, speaking of discussions Brazil's government is having with various technology companies.
"They're proposing a partnership. They came to us and said we want to invest in Brazil."
IMHO, this is a poor choice of direction for industrial automation. It sounds like a good idea as laptops are bulky and difficult to work with when you're 'on the go', but the iPad is not a rugged device nor is the Apple product's platforms designed to integrate to industrial automation platforms. Unless they are planning to RDP to a terminal server, they are going to have some real headaches trying to integrate this cleanly (not to mention that the dev of custom personal apps and software would be daunting for this application). They would be better off waiting for a month or so when the flood of tablets hits the market and choose one that better suits industrial automation. I work in industrial automation and we have looked at implementation of iPads and found that once we got past the appeal of the initial draw to it, we quickly pulled back and chose a different path.
NM, I thought that I read they are going to use them for their plant floor automation. Read it again and realized that I was mistaken :). Good for Brazil
It's not ironically, Apple products in Brazil are so expansive due to brazilian import regulation. If a plant is located in Brazil the costs can be reduced and products can be sold way cheaper.
That's exactally what they want to revert... Brazil incentive plan for local industries reduces overall costs up to 40%. This turns the iPad not only a reality to national market but also for export.
Paying the most, does not mean that the margin is better, as a big part of this goes to the government..
As other people said, Brazilian import regulation makes the products way too expensive.
But, to be out of a important emerging market, with a lot of potential, could mean less growth and leave the door open for the competition.
Better to produce here and grab this opportunity than loose the opportunity.