The hunt for ‘iPhone Girl’ – who is this Apple China factory worker?
By Dave Parrack
An Internet meme can come in all different shapes and sizes, from LOLcats to Rickrolling, and everything in between. And the latest viral to hit the Web is an Apple factory worker in China known simply as ‘iPhone Girl’.
When a new iPhone owner in the UK opened up his phone and started tinkering with it, he was rather surprised to find that it had come with something unexpected pre-loaded on to it: various pictures of what looks like one of the assembly line workers responsible for making and testing the iPhones.
‘markm49uk’ posted the pictures on MacRumours and unwittingly created a new Internet meme, with everyone suddenly keen to learn more about this cute Chinese girl with the smile to die for.
He wrote:
Not sure if this is or is not the ‘norm’ but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it!!!!
It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun – has anyone else found this?
This appeared along with various pictures of the girl, including this one where she is seen smiling and giving the peace sign with her fingers.
The girl then became a sensation, and there are 11 pages discussing her pictures on the original thread, as well as stories about her all over the Internet. But who is she?
No-one seems to know her name, but according to Reuters, she is known to be a worker at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen in southern China. This is the same company that was the subject of a newspaper expose which revealed that workers get paid just £27 ($55) a month for 15 hour days, and sleep on site, 100 to a room.
Foxconn has identified the girl, who works in the testing department, but would not be revealing her details. The company did however assure everyone that her job was safe. Which is good to hear, but personally, I just want her phone number.
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August 31st, 2008
She’s cute. I’d like to get married to her. Can you give me her email address?