AppleInsider Staff
A new plastic iPhone is currently being tested Apple supplier Pegatron, and will soon go into mass production and hit the market, one factory worker claims.
Details of Apple's anticipated low-cost iPhone were revealed in a report published by China Labor Watch on Monday. A section of the report details "A day in Pegatron," with a worker detailing their activities on July 9.
On that day, the worker's job was "to paste protective film on the iPhone's plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines." The worker revealed that the plastic iPhone will "soon be released on the market by Apple."
"The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so quantity is not as important," the worker wrote. "This makes our job more slow paced than in departments that have begun mass production schedules."
In addition, China Labor Watch's company profile notes that Pegatron is responsible for building "low-priced plastic iPhones" for Apple, in addition to the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.
The report accuses Pegatron of violating labor regulations in China, as well as international labor laws and Apple's own standards. Specifically, Pegatron is said to have workweeks that exceed Apple's 60-hour limit, while some employees have allegedly had their pay withheld for working short shifts.
The details also come as an image published over the weekend claimed to show the retail packaging for a product called the "iPhone 5C." Some have speculated that the "C," if the name is accurate, could refer to "color," as the device is expected to come in a range of colors.
Well-connected insider Ming-Chi Kuo revealed last week that Apple is on track to launch its so-called "iPhone Lite" in early September. The device is expected to be essentially a slightly thicker iPhone 5 with a plastic body.
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36 Comments
July 29th Entry: Former Pegatron employee jumps off roof-top after releasing unreleased Apple product information.
Whenever someone without an agenda gets around to investigating this, I predict that they will find: 1. Yes, some workers do work over 60 hours in a week, because they WANT to. (Just like my brother-in-law who went to work on the Alaska pipeline way back then ... 60 hrs was nothing, but that's why he went.) 2. If anyone in the US on an hourly wage works less than the standard 40 hours, they get paid less than had they worked the full 40 hours, just like at Pegatron.
This is not really what the article is about but it does touch upon it. Everyone keeps claiming the C in 5C stands for colour, and it may just be that, but I think it may be for Classic. I know it's not quite as a leap from iPod to iPod Touch to warrant a iPod Classic name for original received but it could make sense to call it classic. Just a though.
That worker needs to become an ex worker. Hopefully they will lose their job and be unable to provide for their family. Whatever happened to doubling down on security?
The way i understand this statement is the phone was in trial on july 9th. That does not mean its not being mass produce right now. Also I think I understand why we got so many leaks of the iphone 5C, it looks like Pegatron security is not as tight as Foxcon. That could explain why we have no ipad 5, iphone 6 leaks so far. On the other hand, low cost iphone leaks are not as damaging has new high product leaks, they actually help support the stocks atm.