Taiwanese electronics maker Pegatron, which was seen as the exclusive partner for building Apple’s mixed reality headset, was recently removed from the device’s supply chain, according to a report by DigiTimes.
According to the report, Apple asked Pegatron to hand over manufacturing and final assembly operations to Chinese supplier Luxshare. Apparently, this process would have ended in March. DigiTimes suggests that the move may be related to Pegatron moving some of its production capacity from China to other regions, which includes the sale of its Shanghai factory to Luxshare.
Pegatron designed the production process for the headset that has now been handed over to Luxshare, but that’s not necessarily a losing point for the company. It would only make big profits if the launch manufacturing yielded a large volume.
And the Apple headset is expected to be manufactured in low volume as the software and hardware have not yet matured and it is an unproven marketwhich may not be initially profitable for vendors, who have pinned their hopes on the long-term potential of headphone devices.
The acquisition of Luxshare marks the first time that a Chinese company will be solely responsible for manufacturing and assembling a new Apple product at launch. Until now, manufacturing of Apple devices has been developed and carried out by companies in Taiwan before gradually moving to Chinese companies.
Luxshare already makes AirPods for Apple, as well as several iPhone and Apple Watch models. In the future, the company should also help supply the iPhone 15 Pro Max, upcoming MacBooks and even Apple’s electric vehicle.