US based tech giant Apple is likely to shift a larger portion of the iPhone production to Pegatron so as to comply with the iPhone sales ban that was announced by the Chinese court on December 10, 2018. A report from a leading daily has mentioned that the iPhones that are assembled at the Foxconn and Wistron are an infringement of the Qualcomm patents. But the iPhones which are produced at Pegatron do not infringe any patent. Qualcomm has confirmed that Pegatron is an exemption.
Pegatron is a patent licensing agreement which is in place with Qualcomm and covers two patents at the centre of the ban. The US based tech giant has opined that if its hand is forced then it can at least partially substitute Foxconn and Wistron assembly with Pegatron. As it was explained in the report by a leading daily, every iPhone manufacturer has their own patent license with Qualcomm and conducts negotiations independently. The patent agreement of Qualcomm with Pegatron covers more of its IP portfolio than the similar agreements that were signed by Foxconn and Wistron.
The report added that Apple is in early talks with Pegatron about weather if it was possible for it to take more of the iPhone orders. The only problem with Pegatron is that it has a very less capacity when compared to Foxconn. Under such circumstances, Apple needs to be fast in terms of taking decision to resource allocation making iPhones for sale in China. The company at present is in preliminary discussion and is yet to change its assembler allocations.
The report has also estimated that the company might lose about $5bn in revenue for the remainder of 2018 if the China ban comes to effect. At the same time Apple might not have to be worried about the manufacturing problem if the ban issue is taken care in the court itself.
Photo Credits: 9to5 mac
