Hon Hai: Apple's iPhone 5 to put Samsung's Galaxy III to Shame
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, trading as Foxconn, is the manufacturer behind Apple's iPhone and iPad in addition to manufacturing the Xbox for Microsoft and the Playstation for Sony. On Monday, Hon Hai's chairman Terry Gou …
Context & Ripple Effects
Hon Hai's relationship with Apple goes back to at least November 2006, when it won handset and notebook orders and then declined to comment on the iPod phone report that preceded the original iPhone. Six years on, the contract manufacturer is no longer staying quiet: chairman Terry Gou publicly claimed the iPhone 5 will put Samsung's Galaxy S III to shame, an unusually blunt statement from the company that builds both Apple's iPhone and iPad and rivals' hardware like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation.
The remark landed mid-ramp toward the iPhone 5 launch, with TechCrunch separately confirming the new device's smaller 19-pin connector replacing the 30-pin port. The story travelled widely the same day — pickups ranged from the Los Angeles Times and Wired to The Register, iLounge, App Advice, WebProNews, Wall St. Cheat Sheet and 9to5Mac — reflecting how much weight the market gives any signal from inside Apple's supply chain.
First-order effects
- Samsung's Galaxy S III, fresh off its spring 2012 launch, now faces pre-launch trash talk from the very factory floor building its rival — free ammunition for Apple's marketing without Apple saying a word.
- Gou's claim effectively commits Hon Hai's reputation to the iPhone 5's quality, raising internal stakes for the ramp of a device already known to carry a redesigned 19-pin connector.
Second-order effects
- Accessory makers and dock vendors must retool around the smaller 19-pin connector, a forced product-cycle cost that lands across the iOS ecosystem regardless of how the iPhone 5 sells.
- Samsung's counter-positioning shifts from spec sheets against the incumbent iPhone 4S to defending the Galaxy S III against an unreleased device, extending its advertising push into the gap before Apple's launch.
Third-order effects
- Contract manufacturers are edging from silent assemblers into public participants in their customers' brand wars — a role Hon Hai's multi-client bench (Apple, Microsoft, Sony) makes structurally awkward if those clients notice.
- If supply-chain insiders keep shaping launch narratives, the Apple–Samsung duopoly fight increasingly gets adjudicated through manufacturing partners' statements rather than official channels alone.
The trend: The Apple–Samsung smartphone rivalry is pulling its supply chain into the open, with contract manufacturers' statements becoming part of the competitive narrative.