Apple supplier mysteriously hires more staff

@ 2013/05/10
While Apple suppliers have been reeling from the company cutting back on orders as the iPhone 5 failed to do as well as hoped, observers are scratching their heads about a strange bit of news coming from Pegatron.

Pegatron, which assembles the iPhone and iPad is trying to increase the numbers of workers in China by up to 40 percent in the second half of the year.

Pegatron currently employs 100,000 workers so an increase by that much can only be because the outfit has a pretty big order to fill.

According to Reuters, its deepthroats tell it that it is confirmation that Apple is developing a cheaper model of the iPhone, broadening its sales base to lower-income buyers in growth markets such as China and India.

Pegatron's CFO Charles Lin is expecting that 60 percent of the company's 2013 revenue will come from the second half. He did not say what the company hopes to make. Apple is only one of the fruits he could have in mind.

He did say there would be new computer models after Intel launches its new Haswell processor.

A Japanese supplier said that small-scale production of the display panel for the model would begin in May, ramping up to mass production in June.

Pegatron posted an 81 percent surge in net profit in the first quarter from a year earlier to $78.59 million, while its operating margin improved to 0.8 percent from 0.3 percent in the previous quarter, Reuters said.

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