Mobile Phones are some of the consumer products with the greatest hype and thus most consumers love news, photos or any information regarding future phones and products. Many models of handsets are leaked to the public while some are kept secret till the moment of announcement.
One such example was the 1st Generation iPhone which was kept a secret till the last moment. Rumours were doing the rounds about the phone but nothing about the features or any photo leaked. Then when people began to write off the rumours, Apple made the announcement with a bang creating tremendous hype.
But today we hear the sad news and wonder whether all this secrecy is worth it. According to sources, 25 year old Sun Danyong, an employee at Foxconn committed suicide. The reason for this is because he lost a 4th Generation Prototype of the Apple iPhone which was entrusted to him to be shipped to Apple.
After Sun reported the handset missing, Foxconn employees illegally searched his apartment and was detained and physically abused. On Thursday July 16th, just after 3am, he jumped from the window of his apartment and committed suicide
This shows how seriously issues of Apple confidentiality are taken by manufacturers there. Foxconn under pressure since the missing iPhone may cause a potential leak and strain their relation with Apple had to do something. Apple cannot be blamed directly for this but this should prove as a lesson for them not to take things so seriously.
UPDATE : Apple confirmed this death to CNET and told CNET
“We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told CNET on Tuesday. “We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.”