According to a China Times quote reported by the Focus Tiawan News Channel, Foxconn chief executive Terry Gou spoke at the company’s annual shareholder meeting this week and told the audience that Apple’s iPhone 5 will “put Samsung’s Galaxy III to shame.” Gou apparently has a low opinion of the rival smartphone manufacturer and told shareholders that his new lifetime goal was to defeat Samsung. Gou even went so far to state that Samsung had a “track record of snitching on its competitors.” Gou was referring to an incident during 2010 in which Samsung provided details about four other Taiwanese companies in regards to a European Commission price-fixing inquiry about the development of flat-panels.
Beyond the iPhone 5, Gou also mentioned that the company signed an agreement with American glass manufacturer Corning for a supply of large glass panels. In addition, Gou spoke highly of television manufacturer Sharp and believes that the partnership between the two companies will provide a three-year competitive edge over Samsung. Gou is often intentionally vague about the products that Foxconn develops for Apple due to the high level of secrecy around the release of Apple products.
In a related report this week, Foxconn is rumored to start receiving Sharp LCD HDTV panels as early as July 1, 2012. Foxconn had originally planned to start receiving the panels during the fourth quarter of this year, but the schedule has been pushed up. The panels are expected to be implemented into the long-rumored Apple television set and the timing of the construction points to the possibility that Apple will launch the HDTV during the fourth quarter of 2012 just in time for the holiday shopping season. Sharp already supplies Apple with Retina displays for the new iPad and analysts have stated that Sharp’s Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide panels would be an ideal match for Apple branding.
