Apple seems to have plans afoot to move a number of their iPhone 5 parts from Japan to Taiwan, at least according to a report on Electronista. It seems that Taiwanese companies Foxconn, Foxconn Electronics, Foxlink, Gold Circuit Electronics and Epistar will now all be supplying parts for the iPhone 5.
The article has taken some of its information from an Economic Daily News piece, in which the costs of the “small parts” were believed to be set at £107.4 million, quite a large amount for such small pieces. DigiTimes also mentioned just last week that Foxconn would be the new iPhone 5 earphone supplier, replacing Japanese firm Foster.
The reasoning behind this possible move seems to be based on the fact that the Japanese yen is making parts more expensive for the company to produce, while moving them over to Taiwan will reduce their costs and lump all of their part making processes into one area.
The article goes on to suggest that another reason could be to reduce the costs it will take Apple to produce the new iPhone 5, due out at some point this year, although these cost savings are highly unlikely to filter down to consumers.
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