Foxconn (富士康) is the trade name of the Taiwan based firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Ltd.) (lse: HHPD). Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide, and mainly manufactures on contract to other companies. Although sometimes referred to as an original equipment manufacturer, Foxconn would be more accurately described as an original design manufacturer.Fact: date=December 2008 Among other things, Foxconn produces the Mac mini, the iPod and the iPhone for Apple Computer; Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer retailers Dell, Inc. and Hewlett Packard; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo;the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, and the Amazon Kindle.The Forbidden City of Terry Gou, The Wall Street Journal, 11 August 2007

The company was founded in 1974 as a manufacturer of plastic products (notably connectors) by Terry Gou, who remains its CEO. It has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since 1991.

Foxconn mainly manufactures in China; in 2007 it employed 450,000 people there and was China's largest exporter.Fact: date=September 2008 The company opened its first manufacturing plant in China in 1988, a factory in Shenzhen that is now the company's largest, with more than 270,000 employees. Beginning in 1994, Foxconn purchased development centres in the United States and Japan. The years 1998 and 1999 saw the establishment of additional manufacturing plants in the UK and the US. As of 2007, the company and its subsidiaries owned plants in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, India and Vietnam.

Cases

Foxconn makes a range of computer cases designed to appeal to system builders. Apple Inc. vertically integrated with Foxconn in 1986.

Motherboards

Foxconn designs and manufactures several different motherboards, with many being sold to OEM distributors such as Dell, HP and Sony. Starting in 2003 the company has produced retail boards under its own brand name. Foxconn also makes PGA/ZIF sockets used by other OEMs such as ASUSFact: date=July 2008.

Graphics cards

In March 2006, Foxconn branched into the manufacture of graphics cards, starting with a GeForce 7900GTX (branded as PX7900GTX) at clock speeds of 550 MHz / 1320 MHz for the core and memory respectively, but with intentions to market both NVIDIA and ATi boards. Foxconn also released the very popular Foxconn 7900GS, one of the most popular graphics cards on the market. The Foxconn 7900GS has a large user fanbase, because of its low price and high clockspeeds. Foxconn has released a 768MB 8800GTX card as well, with clock speeds comparable to the established competition.

Computer cooling solutions

Foxconn manufactures stock heat sink fans for some AMD processors, including but not limited to their K8N Dual Core Opterons.