TAIPEI -- Steve Jobs' abrupt retirement will bring no change to Apple's day-to-day dealings with Foxconn Technology Group, the latter said today.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, issued an email statement to Bloomberg in which it implied the two companies would become even more intertwined in the future.

Apple yesterday named Tim Cook to succeed Jobs as chief executive. Jobs has been ill with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, and received a liver transplant two years ago.

"The relationship between Cook and Foxconn has been very close and we expect that the relationship will become even closer in future," Bloomberg quoted the company as saying.

The relationship is critical to both companies' success. Apple's profits have soared with the outsourcing of its ubiquitous iPods and iPhones to Foxconn, which is said to be paid roughly $6 for every completed, working assembly. Foxconn in turn has become the world's largest EMS company, with annual revenues greater than Nos. 2 through 10 combined. In what resembles a traditional consignment deal, Apple buys components for its contract assemblers. For its quarter ended July 2, the firm had $11 billion worth of outstanding off-balance sheet commitments for outsourced manufacturing and components, plus another $1.6 billion committed to manufacturing equipment, presumably for the Foxconn-run plants.

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