TAIPEI -- Even during the years of Foxconn's eminence as the biggest piece of Apple's global supply chain, executives of the Taiwanese company always kept an eye on a little-known Chinese supplier: Luxshare-ICT.

Luxshare and founder Grace Wang (second left) have won plaudits from Apple CEO Tim Cook (right). Now the Chinese company is poised to become an iPhone assembler. (Nikkei Montage/Source photos by AP, Apple and Creative Electron/iFixit)
Assembly plant deal helps supplier known as 'Little Foxconn' hunt Taiwanese rivals