Apples upcoming plans for the iPhone 5 are rumoured to see it move a large number of parts from Japan to Taiwan. Foxconn Electronics, Foxlink, Epistar and Gold Circuit Electronics are all supplying parts such as the white headphones, LED lights and boards.
Apple are said to be looking for more cost effective ways of producing their products as the strong Japanese Yen has made construction more expensive. Helping the process, Epistar have recently formed a deal with Toyoda Gosei which gives it access to the Japanese company patents.
Prices are continually rising and Apple have already been forced to raise costs for the iPhone 4. The rumoured dual mode Qualcomm cellular chipset would increase the manufacturing costs without anything else being factored in. If they decide to use more powerful dual core processors and increase storage capacity then they need to minimise the additional cost to the consumer.
KitGuru says: Lets hope the build quality as a result, doesn't start to suffer.
Quality will get worse? their quality is already really poor.
Phones these days man… grand in your hand…