Apple’s first foldable iPhone is officially in mass production, and Foxconn is throwing everything it has at the ramp to achieve the required numbers.
What caught my attention in the latest supply chain reports is not just the scale of the hiring campaign, but the pace at which workers are being brought on.
So what does Foxconn’s hiring blitz actually tell us?
Foxconn’s Longhua factory in Shenzhen, which reportedly handles the iPhone Ultra assembly, has launched a large-scale recruitment drive. What’s even more interesting is that the company is bringing in temporary, seasonal, and hourly workers on short-term contracts.
Per a mydrivers report (via Phone Arena), Apple’s largest supplier is hiring people on a temporary basis to work from July to October. The way I see it, the company has already commenced production of the iPhone Ultra and could meet the additional assembly requirement by October this year.
The report also mentions the hourly rates Foxconn is offering. They sit between 22 and 26 yuan, which is about $3.20 to $3.80. Full-time hires start at around 2,600 yuan per month (around $360) during probation, rising to about 2,950 yuan (around $410) afterward.
Overtime, bonuses, and night-shift allowances push earnings higher, though. In fact, temporary workers can reportedly start immediately without the standard medical examination, which suggests Foxconn is staffing this production line as quickly as it can.
What do we actually know about the iPhone Ultra itself?
Supply chain sources say design was locked in some time ago, with no delays expected for a September announcement.
Apple has reportedly told suppliers to prepare for up to 10 million units, but Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that only 500,000 to 1,000,000 will actually ship in Q3, i.e., immediately after the device goes official in September.
Other units could ship later in 2026, between October and December, as part of a phased global rollout.
To summarize, Foxconn is paying under $4 an hour to assemble a phone that Apple plans to sell for roughly between $2,000 and $2,500 for the baseline variant with 256GB of storage. The irony isn’t exactly subtle.
