iPhone production ramping up as Apple asks Foxconn to take on more staff

Low-cost iPhone concept: www.martinhajek.com

Bloomberg reports that Apple has asked Foxconn to take on additional staff at its Zhengzhou factory, where the only Apple product made is the iPhone – suggesting that production may be ramping up for the iPhone 5S and low-cost iPhone launches …

Workers have been recruited at Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, eastern China, for the past month, ending a hiring freeze imposed in February, said the person, who asked not to be named because the plans haven’t been made public. The extra workers will assemble the new device as well as existing models and have been added at Apple’s request to boost capacity, the person said.

The massive manufacturing facility employes more than a quarter of a million people, with the WSJ citing another un-named source as saying the company has been taking on 10,000 assembly-line workers a week since the end of March. Such data in isolation of course tells us little to nothing about production schedules.

It’s widely-believed that the low-cost iPhone aimed at developing markets will be made available in a range of colors. Rumors about the 5S include a fingerprint sensor, though it would be unusual for Apple to introduce significant hardware changes in an S model.