IPhone cable maker pivots to ventilators

The company that makes your iPhone charging cable and home router is joining in on the coronavirus fight. Belkin International has started making what it calls “low-cost” ventilators at manufacturing plants in Providence, Rhode Island.

These are sub-$200 US units aimed for emergencies and less severe cases of COVID-19, compared to more full-featured units that cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

“This is one of the most urgent humanitarian crises we have experienced in our lifetimes and the number one responsibility for each of us in this moment is the care and compassion for others in need,” said Chet Pipkin, CEO and founder of Belkin.

Belkin isn’t the only tech firm helping with the coronavirus fight. Apple has begun delivering on its promise of providing 20 million face masks for medical workers and has shipped two million face shields for first responders — and posted its shield design online for other manufacturers. Google sourced 49,000 face shields which it donated to San Francisco Bay Area hospitals. Automakers Ford and General Motors are both making ventilators.

The pandemic has claimed the lives of about 80,000 people in the United States, where there have been more than 1.3 million reported cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Many governors have said they are in dire need of more ventilators.

The response to COVID-19 showed the world that there will be a need for ventilators, after the pandemic, Pipkin says. “It showed that things can happen that are completely unexpected and at a scale that very few of us were able to imagine, or appreciate.”

Belkin is a unit of FoxConn, the giant Taiwan company that’s best known for manufacturing iPhones at its Shenzhen plant.