AfterDawn: News

Foxconn to begin manufacturing TVs in U.S. soon?

According to the WSJ, Foxconn may begin manufacturing TVs in the U.S. in the near future.

Last month, chairman Terry Gou said the company was "studying the feasibility" of opening a plant to build TVs in the U.S. Now, the idea is gaining traction: "We have many big projects in the US coming up. For instance, is it possible to make our 120-inch TVs in Taiwan and ship them over? It's impossible. We have to make them on site."



Foxconn is already a major partner for American-based Vizio, but the company's displays are manufactured in Asia. The two companies recently unveiled a 120-inch 4K TV at CES, and Gou's latest comments seem to suggest that such a design would require an American plant.

The manufacturing giant recently announced plans to open a $30 million R&D plant in Pennsylvania that includes an additional $10 million investment in research at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Feb 2014 21:49

• Previous article

• Spotify preparing for IPO next year

• Next article

• 'Rock Band' creator unveils first person shooter based on music

• 4 comments

• ronhondo

  They will never make money in this country due to the high taxes and regulation which destroys business. If stupid Vizio comes here it will be the beginning of their demise. No one is going to pay a high price for a crappie Vizio TV.
  

  18.2.2014 19:47 #1

• bhetrick

  Originally posted by ronhondo: They will never make money in this country due to the high taxes and regulation which destroys business. If stupid Vizio comes here it will be the beginning of their demise. No one is going to pay a high price for a crappie Vizio TV. Toyota doesn't make money?
  

  19.2.2014 09:06 #2

• KillerBug

  ronhondo has a point; Toyota does well because they have a great brand (and building cars in Japan is more expensive than building them in the USA, even before shipping and tariffs). Toyota might not be a BMW/Jaguar/ETC...but they have a very loyal following for good reason and they ARE Lexus.
  
  Vizio has worked hard to get a reputation as a WalMart special for people who don't care about picture quality or reliability...Samsung and LG can charge a premium price for a premium product. Even if Vizio makes a premium product no one will believe it is a premium product so no one is going to pay a premium price.
  
  Quote:a 120-inch 4K TV at CES, and Gou's latest comments seem to suggest that such a design would require an American plant
  Not necessarily an american plant, but there are a lot of issues with a Chinese plant. Chinese plants have a bad habit of cutting corners until products only just barely work as they leave the factory. You can look at first-month and 12th-month versions of a product side-by-side and see caps removed, regulators replaced by wires, 100,000 hour LEDs replaced with 1,000 hour LEDs, etc. It's to the point that buying Chinese electronics on ebay is a bigger risk than buying used stuff at a 1-day swap-meet. Big companies can reign it in a lot better than ebay dealers but the problem remains and the monitoring and RMA's negate most of the savings from building in China.
  

  
  

  19.2.2014 11:38 #3

• Mrguss

  Quote:"...to make our 120-inch TVs in Taiwan and ship them over? It's impossible..." Probably 'cos their cheep products break-down during a simple transportation !?
  

  +5000

  19.2.2014 16:44 #4