Apple iPhone 4G (PLUS AN ARTICLE OF THE SUICIDE / DEATH

TC, more like this please?

Great article John.

To others: you have to understand that for someone coming in from rural China or India, a job at a big factory is a means to escape poverty..its an opportunity.

Chuan Tsay · Subscribe · Cisco Systems
Couldn't agree with Puranjay more! Great article! Kudos to John.

Di Wu · Peking Uni.
I'm from China and I agree whole heartedly with @Puranjay.

Pin Lee · Subscribe · KUiTTHO
Agreed. We must see things from different angles


Miad Hoque · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Stuyvesant High School
Nicely written John, I like the way you write, the reporting was done very well! It's good to see that the Chinese factories are accommodating their employees appropriately.

Rick Kats · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Toronto, Ontario
Very well written, It's about time they started treating their workers like people and not robots.

Ryan Germann
He says:

“In the past we tended to be, I think, more holistic: we take care of your food, we take care of your housing, we take care of everything. And so, that means everything is arranged by the company. In the last year, I think in the sense the workers are different and no matter how good our intentions were had in the past, it may not be what the new generation people want.”.

and I hear:

"The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature."

John Biggs · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Gadgets Editor at TechCrunch
very good point

Obi Offorjindu
Ryan Germann - One of the best replies I've ever read!

Brett Horvath · Subscribe · Director at The Leaders Network
Wow, it's clear John has little experience with Chinese "PR" teams. "to say that this is a bad place to work is to be naive about the truths of modern manufacturing" To assume Foxconn would have let a western journalist within 5 miles of mildly unflattering work conditions signals terrible reporting. What a hack-job of an article.

John Biggs · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Gadgets Editor at TechCrunch
here we go. Yeah, it was a total snowjob. They had the workers chained to their benches before I got there, clearly, and they hid all the whips.

This is a modern factory. There is nothing "sweatshop" about it. I understand that there are worse factories out there - I've been to a few - but this one is on par with anything I've seen in Japan, Korea, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland. Yes, it sucks to work at these places and yes it's soul-dimming employment, but what would you do to change it? Foxconn understands that the old model of shit work for shit pay doesn't work. For you to charge it with "unflattering" work conditions is evidence of your own ability to be snowed.

Mathias Connot · Technical Research Recruiter at Zynga
John Biggs I'm sorry, you don't have to have whips and chains to create an unhealthy working environment. 60 hours a week goes a long way towards creating a deleterious environment and all the Xbox's and internet cafes in the world aren't going to change that, just ask any high tech worker who burns out after months and months of extended crunch time. Don't get me wrong, I recognized my complicit role in this global economy... but it's still sad.

John Biggs · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Gadgets Editor at TechCrunch
Mathias Connot sad, to be true, but many want the overtime. My grandmother made gloves, I push bits on the Internet. Generations move forward.


Rahil Bhansali · Subscribe · Top Commenter · NYU
great article..looking forward to the next 3 in the series.

Toks Ogun Tko · Top Commenter
It's shit work for shit pay but at least it's work. Which I'm sure it's how the employees look at it. What happens when the robots take over? Look forward to the rest of the post.

Taylor Hou · Richardson, Texas
you haven't seen the sht they would've done for that much money. it's "clear" work for relative great pay+benefits and it's a start to a better life for most.

Toks Ogun Tko · Top Commenter
Taylor Hou I've seen a lot. I know of house help that get about $80 a month and that can be really shitty work. It's hard to comprehend when you live in the U.S but it's a harsh world out there.

Scott Brannon · Top Commenter · University of California, Davis
usa suicide rate is 16/100,000 so Foxconns 14 of 400,000 is great no?

Wcs Workgroup · Computer Services at Workgroup Computer Solutions
This is one of the longest reports I have ever seen.
I grow up in China, went to uni both in china and western world. I worked in different countries and different cities.
I am working in the western country now. I was working in SHENZHEN.
All of those which surprised you guys, I have seen them, been through them, and maybe a bit enjoyed them.
John, I mean it.Some of the memories from there are not that bad.It was special for me and build up who I am. I apprecaited that. There are happniess. We worked and lived together.
This may hard to understand. :)

Colton Onushko · Subscribe · Photographer at BLVD 22 · 150 subscribers
Great article! Cover important things like this more often imo....instead of regurgitating the usual tech posts that plague the internet daily.
Chun-yi Chang (signed in using Hotmail)
When reading to the part "Unlike Taiwan's HTC", it gives me an impression that Foxconn is from China. But Foxconn is a Taiwanese company.

Chris Acky · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Indianapolis, Indiana
Foxconn could never be a brand. As a brand they are destroyed before they start. If only all products said "Manufactured by Foxconn" (Rather than China) it would be easier to veto the western brands that channel their manufacturing through Foxconn.

Chris Acky · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Indianapolis, Indiana
Nice Article also John. I'm happy to (hopefully) have my perspective of Foxconn changed, so hopefully this series will go to some length to try and cast a more respectful light on Foxconn.

James Dempsey · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Phoenix, Arizona
Good grief. And we complain because the price goes up on something $50...

Marshall Maher
Total whitewash. Nice job photographing the suicide nets though, first time I've seen those.

Denny Chen
Until Taiwan’s HTC, Foxconn doesn’t want to be a brand.

I think you meant "Unlike".

Danny Jutten · Subscribe · Communication Officer at Murata Electronics
I read this article with great interest, and can't wait to read the rest of this feature. Foxconn is a huge concept in the manufacturing world, yet (at least to me) shrouded in secrecy.

Alex Moschopoulos (amportfolio)
Just out of curiousity, if Apple were not manufacturing anything at Foxconn, would most of you still share your positive opinions of all this? Or claim this is a PR show and consumers should fight to close Foxconn down?