Worker in Chinese iPhone factory committs suicide over missing prototype (Phone Arena News)

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Worker in Chinese iPhone factory committs suicide over missing prototype

Worker in Chinese iPhone factory committs suicide over missing prototype

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Published on: 22 July, 2009 by PhoneArena Team

Worker in Chinese iPhone factory committs suicide over missing prototype

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25 year old Sun Danyong, was an employee at the Foxconn Technology Group. Danyong worked at the huge plant at Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, where products for Apple are churned out. The employee's job included sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13th, he reported that 1 of 16 prototypes of the touchscreen device was missing. According to the state-run newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily, Sun's friends said that company security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him. Finally, on the morning of July 16th, Danyong jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building. Apple said in a statement, "We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results into the investigation of his death.". The security chief at the factory has been suspended and turned over to the police and the missing prototype was never found.

There is an extremely high amount of pressue on Foxconn workers to maintain secrecy over Apple products being manufactured at the facility. Competitors, journalists and Apple fan boys are just some of the people who try to catch a glimpse of the Apple products that Foxconn is making for the American company, which includes the iPhone.

source: SouthernMetropolisDaily(China) via NYTimes

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User comments

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jrg11 @ 22 July, 2009 09:02:36 AM

Way to go Apple, now you've killed a guy.

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driv14 @ 22 July, 2009 01:03:15 PM Show

Your mocking a man who has taken his own life.. grow up you sick bastard..

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vzw fanman @ 22 July, 2009 01:39:55 PM

hahha

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20.

volvo @ 24 July, 2009 02:58:54 AM

lmao. every story i look at, u have commented on!

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21.

sidb.me @ 24 July, 2009 07:45:05 AM

Well said!

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trentsinmypants @ 22 July, 2009 11:40:21 AM

How in the hell is this any of Apples's fault? Seriously, you anti-apple douchebags need to give up and stop posting on here....

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Truth @ 22 July, 2009 02:05:27 PM

It isn't Apple's fault, the guy was obviously unstable if he leaps to his death. Apple should have probably asked that no beatings take place though. They should pull out of any relationship with this company because of this though.

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15.

remixfa @ 23 July, 2009 11:23:41 AM

its apples product so its thier repsoncibility. things are different in other countries and people are treated worse in places like that then they are in the civilized world. so yea, its apples responciiblity. they wanted to cut costs and went 3rd world, they allow their "employees" to be treated that way. go apple.

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phone333 @ 22 July, 2009 12:42:52 PM

-All Apple needs right now is a counseling app for it's employees; in case they feel like committing suicide.

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Dood @ 22 July, 2009 01:28:45 PM

Or a sword app for sepeku.
iPhone with an actual katana FTW!!!

Oh...too soon?

((and I realize those are japanese things...not chinese things...))

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13.

Quemical @ 23 July, 2009 07:10:29 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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8.

EWILL20 @ 22 July, 2009 05:46:56 PM

Its pathetic that such a good American company like Apple and so many others are outsourcing jobs to other countries just to save a buck, especially since Apple products are noticeably way over priced despite the quality of the product. If workers are unstable and killing themselves over a missing prototype then I agree that they should end their relationship with a company like this.

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alux0417 @ 22 July, 2009 11:29:05 PM

dude, it's a contractor, not outsourcing. there's a difference. it's a legal business strategy: first to cut costs and second to delegate business processes to the specialists.

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Kiltlifter @ 23 July, 2009 04:15:59 PM

The only reason they are specialists now is because in order to manufactur anything in china, You as a company forfeit your patents, trade secrets. You also have to show them everything that makes your patent work, have evidence and duplicate it for them in a lab. If you were to implement the same business practices in the United states, don't allow a union to form, and pay a decent wage it would be more productive than in China. The average US and Japanese worker given the exact same education and resources as a chinese worker would produce 3 times the output. "American" Car companies like ford GM and Crysler outsource to "specials" anywhere from 60-90% of the vehicle. Whereas companies like Toyota and Honda have 40-80% of the parts for their "Japanese" car manufactured in the United States.... which are better quality cars? Definitely not the "American" models. Think of how much better these products would be if they were handled by reals specialists.

It is all about costs... Outsource entire divisions to other countries saves a few millions... that's it. And the people who get these millions are the already rich and overly paid executives that end up getting bailouts anyways when they drive their companies to the ground.

Next time you feel like trying to be an expert about a topic you know nothing about, post on a medical journal or something.

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18.

Kiltlifter @ 23 July, 2009 04:18:49 PM

I did correct the bad grammar and mispelling, but the post didn't go thru the right way... for that i apologize.

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Kiltlifter @ 23 July, 2009 04:19:13 PM

*MISSPELLING!!!!!! AHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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MTLance @ 22 July, 2009 07:05:56 PM

It was not Apple fault, more like security breach in Foxconn, Foxconn is to blame because it was Apple's contractor making sure of the prototypes can arrive to its destination safely, must be one of the Foxconn employee stole it instead of poor Sun Danyong, because the company will never believe him, that's why he suicide.

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gomets15217 @ 22 July, 2009 08:43:15 PM

read that over again, slowlyyyyy. spell check and proofread next time bro

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alux0417 @ 23 July, 2009 01:19:55 AM

I wonder why security beat him up in the first place. That seems inappropriate.

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trentsinmypants @ 23 July, 2009 10:03:51 AM

Its China.....

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Dood @ 25 July, 2009 04:24:15 PM

Seriously...

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