Apple Is Losing Important, Trustworthy Executives At Foxconn, Says Barclays

Daniel Berehulack / Getty Images Buried in his report on Apple, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes says Apple is losing key executives at manufacturing partner Foxconn:

Recently, Barclays Asia ex-Japan IT Hardware Analyst Kirk Yang noted that Hon Hai’s head of iDPBG (which makes all the iPhones, and is Hon Hai’s most profitable business group), Michael Chung, has been on long leaves since late 2012. The No. 2 person in the iDPBG business group, Chung Cheng-Yu (CY Chung), who was the interim head during Michael Chung’s absence, also left the company in late March. Chen Hui-Long, the current head of the business group, came from outside the iDPBG business group and does not have experience dealing with Apple (products, personnel, engineering, etc), Hon Hai’s No. 1 and most profitable customer. Yang believes these changes could cause potential operating risks for Hon Hai. As a result, Apple may need to address these issues and the plan to make its production process more reliable.

This is pretty wild gossip that we've never heard before. Reitzes notes that Apple had some manufacturing problems with the iPhone, iPad Mini, and new iMacs which hurt sales.