An engineer kills himself over lost 4G iPhone
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 23 July 2009, 15:07 IST   |    68 Comments
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An engineer kills himself over lost 4G iPhone
Bangalore: A Chinese engineer killed himself after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for disappeared. Sun Danyong, 25, was a recent graduate in engineering who worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn is a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. The Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported that his property had been seized and was held in solitary confinement, where he faced "unbearable interrogation techniques" for having lost one of 16 "4G" prototypes. Apple issued a statement this afternoon in response to a report by CNET. An Apple spokeswoman said, "The Silicon Valley firm is 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." AppleInsider notes that it's the second piece of bad news for the company recently. Last week an investigation found that 45 of the 83 factories that built iPhones and iPods in 2008 weren't paying valid overtime rates, and that 23 weren't even paying some of their workers China's minimum wage.

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