Whether the cost split would be 50/50 or any other ratio is unknown. Foxconn announced in mid-February that they will be raising wages for workers by 16-25% and it late March, they reached an agreement with Apple to hire tens of thousands of new workers to reduce overtime. Foxconn is also known for making gadgets for Nintendo and Microsoft.

Within the last few years, there has been a few suicides at the plant. Improve work conditions became a high priority because of those incidents.

“We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little,” she added. Chen said she now earned a bit over 4,000 yuan a month ($634),” stated Foxconn employee Chen Yamei.

We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event. The timing of Hon Hai/Foxconn’s equity stake and partnership with Sharp along with Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou’s separate 46.5% investment in Sharp’s Sakai City plant lends further credibility that Apple TV is in the works. This also follows reports that Apple is investing ~$1.3bn in equipment destined for Sharp facilities. The fact that Hon Hai is investing rather than just procuring panels from Sharp underscores a deeper level of integration which Apple/Hon Hai are accustomed to, increased reliability as Sharp has struggled with iPad3 qualification, and an effort to improve Sharp’s financial position before becoming a more meaningful supplier to Apple. We also believe Corning has an 83% market share at the Sakai facility and would ultimately benefit from improving utilization that is expected to happen over time. Sharp accounted for 10% of Corning’s overall sales and 25% of its display sales in 2011

Most clients agree that a TV is coming; the critical question becomes how the video providers fit into the equation and how apple’s offering would/could differ from current tv’s beyond ios/icloud. Biggest commentary yesterday centered on LG Display as the big loser.

Apple directly responded to Zhou Xiao Ying’s claim that she carves the aluminum shavings from 6,000 iPad logos per day:

“In manufacturing parlance this is called deburring. Her line processes 3,000 units per shift, with two shifts per day for a total of 6,000. A single operator at Ms. Zhou’s station would deburr 3,000 iPads in a shift.”

Apple said that Ying couldn’t have been working a second shift since it would be impossible if she worked 8AM to 8PM, then worked 8PM to 8AM, and then worked her next day’s shift. Ying most likely misunderstood Weir’s question about “how many Apples do you carve each day?”

Foxconn responded to a portion of the program where starting pay was too low for a Chinese payroll tax withdrawal:

“We have over 75 percent of the employees in the category of earning at least 2,200 RMB ($349/month) basic compensation standard. That means they are earning 13.75 RMB ($2.18) per hour. If they work overtime on the weekend, they will earn 27 RMB ($4.28) per hour. In order to reach 3500 to be taxable, they will have to work 47 OT hours to reach 3,500.”

“If the overtime hours are in weekdays, they have to work around 63 hours per month to reach that level of salary to be taxable.”

“Your statement is only true when applying to the entry-level workers while over 75 percent are already over the probation and earning more than 2,200 RMB basic salary.”

Auret van Heerden, the President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association responded to the “five year conversation with Apple”:

“The discussions began in April 2007 but stalled in March 2008. We then resumed them in April 2009 and decided to do a small pilot survey so that Apple could get an idea of how our tools might add value to their program. That pilot led to a second activity that I believe contributed to the decision to join the FLA at the end of 2011. I, of course, cannot speak for Apple but I do believe that the decision to join was probably taken some months before (and therefore well before) the New York Times articles.”

Here is a quote from ABC’s Weir about his trip:

For years, Apple and Foxconn have been synonymous with monster profits and total secrecy so it was fascinating to wander the iphone and iPod production lines, meet the people who build them and see how they live. Our cameras were rolling when thousands of hopeful applicants rushed the Foxconn gates and I spoke with dozens of line workers and a top executive about everything from hours and pay to the controversies over suicides at the plant and the infamous “jumper nets” that line the factories in Shenzhen. After this trip, I’ll never see an Apple product the same way again.

ABC will be spreading their coverage access on “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer,” ABCNews.com, “ABC News Radio,” and “ABC Newsone.” The first footage of the trip will air on “ABC Nightline” on Tuesday February 21st at 11:35PM EST. ABC’s parent company is Disney Corporation. Disney CEO Bob Iger is currently on the board of directors at Apple. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his family are the largest shareholders of Disney.

“As a top manufacturing company in China, the basic salary of junior workers in all of Foxconn’s China factories is already far higher than the minimum wage set by all local governments,” said Foxconn in a statement. “We will provide more training opportunities and learning time, and will continuously enhance technology, efficiency and salary, so as to set a good example for the Chinese manufacturing industry.”

Apple has been criticized for the worker conditions at Foxconn after a string of suicides took place in the last couple of years. There was an explosion that killed three workers at an iPad manufacturing plant at Foxconn this past June as well.