IPhone Girl

iPhone Girl is the name which has been given to a Chinese girl who works in the Foxconn Shenzhen factory in China making the new Apple iPhone 3G. The girl's fame came when a MacRumors forum member discovered a range of pictures of the factory, including three pictures of the girl in question, on an iPhone 3G from its British distributor Carphone Warehouse. He posted them on the online forum on August 20, 2008 and within hours the pictures went around the globe.

Growing interest

Interest among the online community grew immediately, with people wanting to know the girl's identity, and whether or not she has been, or will be, sacked for the incident. An unidentified representative from Foxconn's Shenzhen factory responded, telling the newspaper Nandu Daily that "she is definitely not fired".

Controversy

A Foxconn spokesperson called the episode "a beautiful mistake." Questions have also been raised regarding the girl's age, and pointing out that Foxconn was the subject of a 2006 newspaper exposé claiming workers earned just £27 a month and lived in "dormitories on the site, 100 to a room, arriving with a few possessions and a bucket to wash their clothes."

Reaction

Since being released on August 20, 2008 the story has been featured in the mainstream media around the world.

South China Morning Post has reported:

"The unnamed employee's growing fame (she has predictably become a Digg hit and is supposedly being stalked by paparazzi) has freaked out the one they're calling "iPhone girl."

"She's just a young girl who has come to the city from her remote hometown. She's never been in such a situation. She's really scared by the media. She told me she wanted to quit her job and go back home to get away from this. We let her off work today so she could rest."

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