iPhone Girl Becomes Internet Superstar

After a British iPhone 3G customer found pictures of a Foxconn Chinese factory worker giving the "V" sign on his phone, the "iPhone Girl" has become an Internet superstar. The story, and photos, has gone "viral" traveling across the globe seemingly instantaneously reminding us how small the world has become.

The story behind "iPhone Girl" is this: A British iPhone customer turned on his new iPhone only to discover a picture of a cute young Chinese factory "girl" assembling iPhones. In the photo she gives the victory (or maybe peace) sign. The iPhone owner reported his finding on MacRumors.com along with posting three pictures of the "girl" he found on his phone.

Then came the questions - and there were plenty. Some questioned the girl's age, and whether a harmless snapshot may be a small glimpse into child labor abuses. One person snapped up the Internet domain iPhonegirl.net and others have created Facebook and MySpace user accounts under the same name.

Meanwhile in China the story captured the attention of Internet users. Interested Chinese Internet users took it upon themselves to track the factory worker down to Shenzhen, China and the company Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that makes iPhones for Apple. There is now a Chinese-language iPhone Girl Web site.

Questions swirled on message boardss, would "iPhone Girl" would be fired for the photos? The Internet breathed a sigh of relief when representatives from Foxconn weighed in confirming that "iPhone Girl" was a worker at its plant and declared the photos were a "beautiful mistake." In an interview with China Daily the company gave assurances she would not be fired.

According to a Washington Post report Foxconn says the young woman in the photo is a migrant worker from Hunan province and is overwhelmed by the media attention and wants to quit her job, go home, and remain anonymous.

The Internet, being what it is, has commented on the "iPhone Girl" expressing a range of emotions from concerned, indifference, to the absurd. One Gizmodo reader deemed "iPhone Girl" a 5.5 out of 10 on the cute scale.

Is it only a matter of time before the conspiracy theorists claim "iPhone Girl" is really a marketing stunt and that the iPhone assembly worker in the photos is just a cute model on par with Lin Miaoke, the girl who lip-synced "Ode to the Motherland" at the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony?

If she is just an assembly-line model, then who is the real "iPhone Girl"?

Comments

Funny..

buckwalter

August 29, 2008

9:08 AM PT

G-d save her from her family and from the government when they find out about this.

Samspam

August 29, 2008

10:25 AM PT