Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Here's the Robot that Foxconn Will Use to Build Their Million-strong "Robot Kingdom" (ABB; AAPL)

Missing from the Credit Suisse list of robotics manufacturers in the post immediately below was ABB.
This is one of their anthropomorphic versions, FRIDA:


Last year when Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou announced his plans to employ one million robots in putting iPhones together the chatter was "Who's going to get the order".
Duh.
No one is getting a million-robot-order.
Foxconn is the world's premier electronics assembler and they'll make their own damn robots, thank you very much.

With a little help from current robot offerings.
Like Frida.

They aren't just betting on robots. Yesterday Foxconn announces a $5 billion (minimum) investment in Indonesia:
Foxconn to tap cheap labor in Indonesia, huge consumer market

See also:
Xinhua, July 30, 2011
Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years

The Economist's Schumpeter blog, Aug. 2, 2011
Robots don’t complain or die

cnet, Nov. 4, 2011
Foxconn to build Taiwan 'robot kingdom'