Apple is hiring hundreds of engineers and supply chain managers in China and Taiwan as it ramps up production to deal with increasing demand in Greater China, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company’s job postings show the new positions range from working on hardware development for touch screens and cameras to electrical engineering and software quality assurance. Apple is stepping up hiring to speed product development and introduce a wider range of devices. The company is poaching engineers from rival HTC and other Taiwanese technology firms to add staff in Shanghai and Taipei, people familiar with the matter said. The new engineers will work with Asian suppliers to develop iPhone and iPad components at a faster pace. According to the Journal, Apple is also adding supply-chain managers after being criticized about factory conditions at some suppliers. The company declined to provide specifics about its personnel in China, but people familiar with the situation said Apple has added several hundred engineers and operations staff in the country since mid-2013. The total number of those jobs now exceeds 600, they said. Apple’s core research and development activities will stay in Cupertino. Apple is also stepping up production to deal with the industry’s shortening product cycle and increasing competition from low-cost phones using Google’s Android. Market-research firm IDC reported that Apple’s share of the global smartphone market dropped to 17.9 percent in 2013’s fourth quarter from 20.9 percent the previous year. But sales in Greater China jumped 29 percent in the quarter ending in December, making the country Apple’s fastest-growing market for the period.