Misplaced iPhone Leads to Suicide

The level of secrecy around new Apple products is well-known. I even know people who have had to sign multiple internal NDAs to work on products, and when he receives a prototype, everything is covered aside from the part he has to work on.

According to Venture Beat, Sun Danyong, who worked for longtime Apple manufacturer Foxconn, was responsible for a set of 16 prototypes. Here's what happened, according to VB:

On Thursday, July 9th, Sun got 16 prototype phones from the assembly line at a local Foxconn factory. At some point in the next few days, he discovered that one of the phones was missing. He suspected that it had been left at the factory, but couldn’t find it. On Monday, July 13, he reported the missing phone to his boss. Then, that Wednesday, three Foxconn employees searched his apartment — illegally, according to Chinese law. Accusations are flying that Sun was detained and physically abused during the investigation, although this has not been substantiated (possible evidence: there’s this somewhat garbled and potentially faked instant message exchange from Sun shortly before his death).

Surveillance cameras confirm that last Thursday, shortly after 3 AM, he jumped out of a window in his apartment building to his death. Was it because of the pressure from Foxconn? What exactly did Foxconn do to him? After all, Foxconn would do anything to maintain its relationship with Apple, and secrecy is paramount to the Cupertino, CA company. It's not even clear that Danyong was at fault (not that it would make Foxconn's behavior acceptable).

Meanwhile, Apple confirmed the employee's death, but commented no further.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

In reality, Apple is no different than any other company outsourcing manufacturing to Asia and other low-wage locales. While they state these sorts of "requirements," they only infrequently inspect plants, and always give warnings before doing so. As exposés on Dateline and other shows have confirmed, many of these plants are neither dignified nor respectful.