Terry Gou did almost everything that Apple could ask for. He made all those iPhones — and he made them cheap. When Apple was subsequently criticized for low wages and poor working conditions at his factories in China, it was Mr. Gou’s company, the Foxconn Technology Group, and not Apple, that caught the most heat. But now Foxconn, a potent symbol of the perks and perils of globalization, is taking a step that, not all that long ago, would have seemed unthinkable: it is contemplating life far, far beyond Apple. Foxconn, which is based here but does most of its manufacturing in mainland China, wants to reduce its reliance on Apple. Its new strategy is a shift away from making products that other companies design, and toward developing products of its own, with an especially aggressive push into designing and manufacturing large, flat-screen televisions. “Foxconn senses that the Apple aura isn’t as invincible as before,” said Jamie Wang, an analyst at the research firm Gartner. “So they are worried that they need something besides Apple’s business that will allow them to grow.”
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