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Foxconn 'falling short' of iPhone demand

Foxconn's chairman Terry Gau has said the Taiwanese manufacturer is struggling to keep up with demand for Apple's iPhone.
Written by Jon Yeomans, Contributor

Taiwanese firm Foxconn has said it is struggling to keep up with demand for Apple's iPhones.

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Apple iPhone 5

"It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Foxconn chairman Terry Gau told reporters at a business forum, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Apple's iPhone 5 was launched on 21 September, and the company reported it had sold five million units in its first three days, though some analysts had predicted it would sell more.

In its most recent financial report, Apple revealed it had sold 26.9 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2012; however, the iPhone 5 was only available for the last nine days of that period. In addition to that latest handset, Apple is still selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models.

Foxconn has been under the spotlight in recent years over working conditions at its factories. In February, Apple asked the Fair Labor Association to inspect Foxconn's facilities to ensure conditions and pay are up to scratch. In September, a Foxconn factory in Shanxi province, China was rocked by a riot involving some 2,000 workers.

Meanwhile, a report from analyst Daniel Chang at Macquarie on Tuesday suggested that Foxconn may be gearing up to produce a "low-cost" iPhone model in the first of half of 2013.

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