So the story goes that a 25-year-old man at Foxconn – where iPhones are born – was to send 16 iPhone prototypes to Apple from the Chinese factory, but one was lost somewhere. The Foxconn security department then proceeded to illegally search the man’s apartment and interrogated him. But that was too much for the man that might be responsible for leaking a prototype of the next iPhone.
A few days ago on July 16, he jumped from a 12-story building because of the incident. It’s probably not out of the realm of possibilities that he not only was roughed up, but also lost his job even though that’s not mentioned in the report.
This incident will of course raise flags about Apple’s super-secret policy and work conditions at Foxconn in China. People will call for action and change from Apple, but the policies probably will not change. Some folks might even boycott the iPhone for a while, but that won’t last long. This event will likely be filed away with the Wall Street fund managers who couldn’t take their high-pressure jobs either. Sad.
Shanghaiist via Giz
Update: CNET
Apple confirmed on Tuesday the death of a man who worked at an iPhone plant in China.