With the iPhone 16 line a month away, Foxconn adds 50K workers to its largest iPhone plant

Can you believe that we are only a few weeks away from Apple's introduction of the iPhone 16 series? The assembly lines at Apple's contract manufacturers are humming and whirling 24/7 assembling iPhone 16 series models. According to the English language website Business Korea, Foxconn has added 50,000 new workers at its Zhengzhou factory. It feels as though the release of the iPhone 15 series just happened yesterday and there will be a  tinge of sadness as my iPhone 15 Pro Max will no longer be one of the four current models.

Last month we told you that Foxconn had started recruiting new workers for its Zhengzhou plant which happens to be its largest factory and thus the largest iPhone production fab. On social media and job sites online, Foxconn offered pay of 25 yuan per hour (equal to 4,800 won or $3.52 U.S. Dollars) and added a bonus of 7,500 yuan ($1,046.51 USD) up from the 6,000 yuan bonus offered in June.

We've already entered the peak season for iPhone shipments which runs from this month through the end of the year. Apple is hoping to ship 90 million iPhone 16 units during this period, up 10% over last year's deliveries. Last year, Apple shipped 81 million iPhone 15 series models during the second half of 2023. With the Zhengzhou facility the largest iPhone production factory worldwide, and Apple expecting a 10% increase in shipments, it is no surprise to see that Foxconn hired more workers.

Reasons to expect an increase in iPhone 16 shipments this year compared to iPhone 15 shipments last year include the tech giant's Apple Intelligence AI initiative. The latter requires 8GB of RAM to run and therefore will only work on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and all four iPhone 16 models. These are the iPhones that sport 8GB of RAM. Additionally, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will sport larger 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays, respectively. That is up from the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 Pro screen and the iPhone 15 Pro Max's 6.7-inch display.

While Foxconn continues to build the iPhone and other Apple products in China, the Taiwanese company is also planning to utilize its factory in Sriperumbudur, India to build the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. This would be the first time that Apple has had any current iPhone Pro models built in India. Apple still hopes to eventually move all production out of China so that the company doesn't get hurt if the U.S. brings back tariffs on imports from China.

The iPhone 16 Pro will get the Tetraprism periscope lens that debuted on last year's iPhone 15 Pro Max with an optical zoom of 3x. The Pro series Ultra-wide camera will be backed by a 48MP sensor. We expect the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Plus to carry a 3nm A18 application processor (AP) while the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are equipped with the A18 Pro AP which will be a slightly higher spec'd version of the A18. Both chipsets will be built by TSMC using its second-gen 3nm process node. (N3E).