Foxconn riot; will the iPhone 5 be affected?

Engadget reported a few hours ago that Foxconn’s Taiyuan plant in China saw a riot occur earlier this morning. While Foxconn is not an exclusive Apple parts manufacturer, that particular factory did have a stake in the fruity company’s latest smartphone, since they produce the back cases of the new iPhone 5 in addition to numerous other devices, according to an undercover report from a Chinese newspaper just last month. Not only that, Engadget’s translation of the report did mention Foxconn’s alleged “harsh management as well as ‘practically compulsory’ over-time work” in addition to citing “unofficial reports claiming the ’2,000-people’ riot was triggered by security guards hitting a worker at 10pm local time.”

Could this result in a delay for iPhone 5 production? Perhaps not, assuming that this is a one-off and isolated incident, although there has been another report of a riot breaking out at Chengdu. Needless to say, it would be putting the cart before the horse to say that the ramp-up of the iPhone 5’s production is the main spark for the riot, but one still cannot rule that out completely with conviction. What do you think of the entire shebang?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: foxconn, iPhone 5