Hon Hai Precision Industry, better-known as Foxconn, the Taiwan-based manufacturer of iPhones and other consumer electronics products, is said to be considering a joint venture with Red Digital Cinema to make smaller, less-expensive 8K cameras.
Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou was reportedly speaking after an annual corporate gathering held in Taipei over the weekend when he broke the news. Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review wrote that FoxConn “plans to team up with” Red, while Bloomberg reporters were more circumspect, saying only that the companies are “in discussions about a possible joint venture.” The Taipei Times wrote that Hon Hai might make an investment in Red.
“We will make cameras that will shoot professional-quality films in 8K resolution but at only a third of current prices and a third of current camera sizes,” Gou told reporters, according to the Nikkei publication. Based on the fairly vague reporting out of Taipei, the news may portend a separate line of high-quality cameras for the consumer market, rather than a new product that would undercut Red’s existing professional offerings.
Red officials have not posted to the “Recon” forum at reduser.net where they typically share information directly with customers this week, and a company rep declined comment.
Hon Hai’s plans to expand its offerings come as growth slows in the global smartphone market. It was not clear right away whether the discussions have anything to do with Red’s upcoming launch of its Hydrogen smartphone later this year.
Hon Hai acquired Japanese display vendor Sharp in 2016, and recently announced plans to build a $10 billion LCD display manufacturing facility employing 13,000 workers in southeastern Wisconsin by 2020.
