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Foxconn - the biggest name you've not heard of

by Tarinder Sandhu on 11 October 2005, 13:32

Tags: Foxconn (TPE:2317)

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Foxconn U.K.

Foxconn U.K.

The previous page has, hopefully, delineated Foxconn's position as a global provider of the hardware that keeps PCs ticking along. The U.K. operation is run on a much smaller scale, with a 12-strong team, headed by Ken Liu, dedicated to getting the Foxconn word out to the masses. Being part sales office and part warehouse with a close-knit team, it's a fun kind of setup.

Big is good but bigger is better, seems to be company's mantra. The U.K. office's main priority seems to be to raise the Foxconn brand name in its own right. We know that it produces OEM motherboards for a whole bunch of heavy-hitters, but it now wants to tap into markets that have not yet been fully explored. One such market is the retail channel, where the Foxconn name isn't as recognisable as, say, ASUS', ABIT's, or MSI's. Appealing to the build-it-yourself kind of person, the consummate HEXUS reader, is also one of Foxconn's aims.



Forging relationships with etailers and strengthening ties with system integrators comes under the remit of Steve Ling, Foxconn's U.K sales manager, so if you begin to see Foxconn-branded boards appearing at your favourite etailer in the near future, Steve's been the catalyst for it, ably assisted by the lovely Mani. Steve's probably smiling after hearing that HEXUS.net hadn't managed to break their nForce4 C51 sample during some rather strenuous testing. That, or he's just won the lottery.



Walking on through the recently painted office, a door opens up to Foxconn's storage section. Our esteemed editor-in-chief, on the right, casts a critical eye over proceedings. Stock is shipped from Holland to Milton Keynes, where it is then shipped, in bulk, on to system integrators and etailers.



A closer look at some of th retail motherboards shows Foxconn's Winfast series. All-in-all, the company plans to have around 25-30 retail SKUs for current chipsets. It makes implicit economic sense for Foxconn to encroach on the retail market in a big way, for it literally produces motherboards, ports, sockets, and cables by the million. The lineup will also cover most major price-points, beginning with ultra-cheap, spartan boards to oversized deluxe versions, replete with kitchen sink, most associated with Intel's i955X chipset.

Shipping directly from the U.K also allows Foxconn to offer a comprehensive warranty with its retail boards. Should yours fail during the warranty period, Foxconn will ensure that you receive a brand-new retail package in return That includes all associated cables and accessories, naturally.



A door leading off from the main warehouse led us into a testing area that's familiar to hardware reviewers across the world. It's here that technical problems are addressed, and Carl, the head techie who simply didn't want to be snagged by the HEXUS.zoomlens, is bombarded with the kind of questions that will make your hair prematurely grey. He's also our point of reference (read person to be screamed at) if something doesn't quite work on a sample board.

Where to now?

We took a recent look at Foxconn's microATX-sized NVIDIA C51 motherboard just a few days' ago. Our overall impression was a positive one. It was fast, stable and, crucially, cheap. The motherboard market is a competitive one, and if Foxconn can, as it hopes, really get its teeth stuck in to the retail channel and drum-up further business by launching a succession of top-class motherboards, then something will have to give. The juggernaut-like power of Foxconn isn't going to go away, so we reckon that at least one existing tier 1/2 motherboard maker will be the fall guy in the coming year. Who it will be is anyone's guess, though.

What we know for now is that Foxconn has moved pieces into place that will affect the retail and S.I. motherboard industry in a big way. Looking into the HEXUS.crystalball tells us that you'll be seeing and hearing a lot from it in the upcoming months.

Thoughts

As someone who sees nothing much past the finished retail product, it was nice to take a look at the other side of the fence, where products are launched, strategies are developed, and accounts are won or lost. After all, we're covering a hugely competitive business where the dividing line between success and failure is markedly thinner than in most other industries. Someone's success is usually accompanied by another's failure. We reckon that Foxconn has the recipe for success just about right. The company's size, financial clout, and focus makes further market penetration in both the retail channel and S.I. motherboard arena, in the words of Agent Smith, inevitable. Let's now wait how it all pans out.