How fast is the world shrinking? It used to be sufficiently mind-boggling just that the Apple iPhone is designed in Sunnyvale, Ca., made in China and shipped back out to gadget-lovers around the world.
Now, the image of a cute factory worker seems to have set a new standard.
Last week, a British user of the MacRumors.com forum wrote that a surprising photo showed up on the home screen of a brand new iPhone after it had been activated on iTunes—a young Asian woman in pink and white striped uniform, smiling and making a 'V' sign at the camera.
'It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun — has anyone else found this?,' wrote the author, known as markm49uk, who posted the 'home screen' image along with two others of the same woman found on the new iPhone.
Within days, the photos, and the woman behind them, had gone viral and global. An English-language Web site — iphonegirl.net — was quickly registered in the United States to highlight photos of the mystery woman and other accidental iPhone photos. Then the news spread to China, where netizens began to track her down. Many feared that she would be fired for striking a playful pose on the job.
Her employer would be Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that makes iPhones for Apple in Shenzhen. Yesterday, the China Daily reported that the company had labeled the incident a 'beautiful mistake' and gave assurances that the mystery worker's job is safe.
'She is an assembly worker in the mobile phone testing department and she is still working there. But she has requested us not to make her name public and we will respect her decision,' Liu Kun, a Foxconn spokesman, told the China Daily. Mr. Liu said the woman was a migrant worker from Hunan province but declined to give further details.
Don't expect to find more smiles from southern China on future iPhones. Mr. Liu said that from now on, all iPhone's cameras will be tested and any similar photos will be deleted. 'Apple and Foxconn staff have started a joint probe into the incident,' he added — somewhat ominously, to our ears.
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世界正在变小──变得有多快？常常令人觉得难以置信的是，苹果公司(Apple)的iPhone手机在加州桑尼韦尔进行设计，制造地却在中国，产品又从那里被运送给全球各地的手机发烧友。
而现在，工厂装配线工人的可爱形像似乎又有了新标准。
上周，一位英国人在MacRumors.com的论坛上发贴子说，当他登录iTunes网店把自己新买的正牌iPhone手机开通后，一张出人意料的照片出现在手机屏幕的主页上：画面上是一位身穿粉白条工装的年轻亚洲女性，她面带微笑，对着镜头摆出“V”字型手势。
这位网名为markm49uk的手机用户写道，看来有人在生产线上开了点小玩笑，还有其他人遇到这种情况吗？markm49uk把自己iPhone手机主页上的这张照片以及手机中存着的其他两张这位女孩的照片都贴到了网上。
仅仅数天，这些照片以及照片上的那位女孩就迅速红遍了全球。一个名为“iphonegirl.net”的英文网站随即在美国登记注册，专门发布这位神秘女性的照片以及其他意外预存在iPhone手机中的照片。这则消息随后又传到了中国，那里的网民开始探寻这位女性的身份背景，许多人担心，这位女孩可能会因在工作场合这么做而被炒鱿鱼。
她的雇主应该是台资企业富士康公司(Foxconn)，这家公司在深圳的工厂负责为苹果公司生产iPhones手机。《中国日报》(China Daily)周四报导说，富士康公司已将这起事故定性为“一个美丽的错误”，并保证说这位神秘的员工不会被解雇。
富士康发言人刘坤对《中国日报》说，这位女士是该公司移动电话测试部的一名装配线工人，她仍在原岗位工作。但她要求公司不要公开她的姓名，而公司也尊重她这一决定。刘坤说，这位女士是来自湖南的民工，但他拒绝透露更多细节内容。
刘坤表示，人们不应指望今后能从iPhone手机中发现更多来自中国华南的微笑，从现在起，iPhone手机在出厂前都要检查拍照装置，任何类似照片都会被删除。他还说，苹果和富士康已对这起事故展开联合调查──这在我们听来可不太好玩啊。
