Foxconn to focus on content creation, leveraging cloud and data resources

The world's largest electronics assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry said on Thursday it will turn new software development centres in southern Taiwan into a data and cloud power base to focus on content creation.

It is Hon Hai's latest effort to climb up the value business chain, after winning local 4G licences the previous day.

"Integration of software and hardware is the future," company chairman Terry Gou told reporters at Kaohsiung Software Technology Park in southern Taiwan.

"Taiwan is our first step (for 4G business). We will work with global operators in the future, and this will also help our design in the next generation smartphone."

Hon Hai, better known by its trading name Foxconn, announced its partnership with Mozilla in June to launch devices run on the U.S. company's Firefox operating system, as it looks to reduce its reliance on making products for Apple Inc.

Gou said future content will focus on graphic and video, and the company is planning to launch a gaming app and surveillance service through the cloud. It will hire around 3,000 people.

He said in June the company would focus on developing new technologies, intellectual property rights and e-commerce, in a bid to move away from the its core contract manufacturing business that yields low margins, with research and development, software and patent rights the focal points.

It won a licence for two bands in Taiwan's domestic fourth-generation (4G) mobile spectrum on Wednesday for a total bidding price of T$9.18 billion, a deal which a fund manager said was good for the company to diversify into a high-margin business.

© Thomson Reuters 2013