Foxconn sets up think-tank to begin search for successor to CEO Terry Gou

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, is the world’s largest contract assembler of electronic goods, and has a firm grip over the smartphone, tablet manufacturing business with many big-name partners.   The company has now established a think-tank to seek out a future successor for chairman and chief executive officer Terry Gou, Taiwan’s Economic Daily News reported on Monday. A spokesman for the company confirmed Hon Hai has set up a think-tank that will be led by Dr. Steven Yang, head of one of the main divisions at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.   The spokesman declined to comment on the paper’s report that the think-tank’s mission is to find a successor for Gou, and declined to comment on when Gou might leave his position.   The move comes amid broader changes at Foxconn. The company, which is the main supplier of products for tech giant Apple, has expressed its intent to move away from pure contract manufacturing, purchasing a license to operate part of the wireless telecom spectrum in Taiwan and entering into a deal with Mozilla to create content for its Firefox browser, as well as **devices running the Firefox OS** .   Foxconn announced last week it expects to **produce 90 million iPhone 6 units for the US holiday season** later this year.   Foxconn also tied-up with **BlackBerry to produce low-cost devices** . The **BlackBerry Z3** was the first phone to emerge from this partnership and many more low-cost BlackBerry devices are expected to be produced by the company, as the Canadian smartphone pioneer looks to target that particular price point in the market share battle.   With inputs from Reuters