A 25 year old engineer named Sun Danyong has committed suicide because he misplaced a prototype of the 4^th generation iPhone (more info). He was working for Foxconn (more info), the company that manufactures iPhone for Apple (more info).  Sun was responsible for shipping 16 iPhone prototypes to Apple. The story goes that when he reported this to his boss at Foxconn he was interrogated and later goons of Foxconn illegally searched his apartment and then physically abused him. He later committed suicide by jumping from a 12-story building on 16^th July. Foxconn has issued a statement apologizing for the tragic incident and ordered an internal management enquiry.

Apple has confirment the news and spokesperson Kristin Huguet told CNET

“We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death, We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.”

This raises some chilling questions regarding the pressure faced by employees (both of Apple and its supply chain) because of the secretive nature of the Apple and the inhuman practices followed by outsourcing companies in developing countries.

Follow-Up

VentureBeat : iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide by Eric Eldon

Gizmodo : Report: iPhone Leak Interrogations Drive Foxconn Employee to Suicide by John Herrman

AppleInsider : Worker commits suicide after iPhone prototype goes missing – reports by Neil Hughes

Yahoo! Tech – Macworld : Foxconn employee commits suicide after iPhone prototype loss by Aayush Arya

I4U News : Fourth Gen iPhone Leak Causes Suicide. by Robert Evans