Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company. It is headquartered in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan and is trading as Foxconn Technology Group (News - Alert). It was founded in 1974 and measured by revenue, is the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer.

Foxconn is primarily an original design manufacturer and its clients include major American, European and Japanese electronics and information technology companies. Some of its products include Kindle, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

It is a major manufacturer of Apple (News - Alert) products as well. Notable products that the company manufactures for Apple include the iPad, iPhone and iPod. Hon Hai said that it would like to focus more on developing new technology, intellectual property rights and e-commerce.

The company is trying to reduce its reliance on Apple. Towards this end, Hon Hai has sold part of a patent portfolio to Google (News - Alert), Inc. The patents involve the superimposition of virtual images on real-world photos.

The above mentioned technology falls under the category of being called Head Mounted Display (HMD). Yes, an HMD is a display device worn on the head. Sound like Google Glass to you? That is why Google is after the technology.

The announcement was made today, but no further details were mentioned. There was no disclosure as to what the sale price was. Currently Hon Hai said that it has applied for over 55,000 patents. To date, over 5,000 of these patent applications have been approved. An upcoming event collocated with ITEXPO (News - Alert) Las Vegas, SUITS (Synopsis under IP/Patents Telecom Sourcing) Conference, will explore issues of patents and licensing Aug. 26-29 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Conference Center.

I am sure that Google paid a substantial price for the technology. I am also sure that sometime very soon we will hear about how Google is going to incorporate this technology into Google Glass. This also helps Hon Hai as it is trying to become more self-reliant – and you do need money if you want to work on developing new technology.