Foxconn Raising Prices to Avoid Further Suicides

Hon Hai, or Foxconn, is essentially the manager of one of the world's major electronics factories. Foxconn is one of the premier manufacturers of electronics designed by Apple, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Dell, HP, among many others.

Although Foxconn is usually in the background, as the designers and sellers of the electronics take the spotlight, the manufacturing company has been under scrutiny for the working conditions that it gives to its workers.

A flurry of suicides cast a light on Foxconn and its employment practices. In response, Foxconn vowed to improve working conditions as well as increase wages (though there's still some question as to how effective the changes are). Such increases come at an added operating cost for Foxconn, and some of that cost is going to be passed on to the company's clients.

According to Reuters, Foxconn will be raising prices starting this month for some of the services that it provides to its clients, including Apple. Given that iSuppli estimates that the iPhone 4 costs $6.54 to make in China, it's doubtful that Apple will be feeling any sort of pinch from a higher rate.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • This is funny Sh*t. So by them raising prices it's going to decrease suicides? Maybe someone should tell them to give there employees raises. I have a hard time believing the price increase is going to go into the workers hands. I guess teh CEO needed something to justify the increase. Good excuse.
    Reply
  • figgus
    bloodlust2222This is funny Sh*t. So by them raising prices it's going to decrease suicides? Maybe someone should tell them to give there employees raises. I have a hard time believing the price increase is going to go into the workers hands. I guess teh CEO needed something to justify the increase. Good excuse.
    Did you even READ the article?
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    so apple will be charged an extra dollar or two per device and add a couple hundred to the final price claiming its thier supply parts companies raising prices.. its iCONomics
    Reply
  • silentq
    Apple is not overpriced enough? Yeah, just give Jobs another reason to crank up the prices.
    Jobs: "We incresed the price of iPhone 4 from $799 to $999 because Foxconn raised it's production value from $6.54 to $6.75 in order to compensate the workers and decrease suicides. Apple simply follows the rules."
    Reply
  • JimmiG
    The only reason stuff is so cheap these days is because it's made by slave workers in Asia. If everything was being manufactured in the EU, US etc., with the wages and working conditions people expect, your motherboard wouldn't be $150, it would be $1500.
    Reply
  • hoof_hearted
    What bugs the crap out of me is the fact that Apple only pays $6.54 per phone. Where does the rest of the money go? Hell, I'd for $100 for a Foxconn iClone, cutting Apple out of the picture and giving Foxconn an extra $93.46 per unit to spread between the CEOs and workers. It is win-win for everybody except Apple.
    Reply
  • cronik93
    Will they raise quality of there mobo's with that?
    Reply
  • xrodney
    JimmiGThe only reason stuff is so cheap these days is because it's made by slave workers in Asia. If everything was being manufactured in the EU, US etc., with the wages and working conditions people expect, your motherboard wouldn't be $150, it would be $1500.Doubt difference will be more then 20-30$.
    As already said by some companies making electronics, salary is making only ~20% of manufacturing expenses.
    Reply
  • chickenhoagie
    great, foxconn will charge these rich companies extra for better employee wages as they properly should, then the big companies will go an extra mile to rape us even harder and throw on 3 times the price and say to us that they're compensating for the bad market.

    oh well..we all hate CEO's but i guess thats life.
    Reply
  • andrewcutter
    beamthegreat@ hoof_hearted and all the apple haters out there. The 6.54$ is just the cost for assembling an iphone 4 NOT the price of the material uses to build it. WHy are people so stupid here?:O
    Reply