Ethical iPhone

The press has had a few stories about the harsh employee environment under which subcontract firms working for Apple (and doubtless every other major consumer electronics firm) operate.

The original story was about the suicide of a worker who had taken a prototype iPhone and had subsequently committed suicide after being "interviewed" by his Chinese employer's security people.

In fairness the article does point out Apple is kind of strung to one or two big suppliers who can supply the volume they would need for their products. An attempt to move to a more ethically run supplier in the same region would see a swift buy out by the original firm.

But it does highlight that in our addiction for cheap consumer electronics we sometimes forget the human cost to this. In the case of Apple whose products are always reassuringly expensive, maybe their is more margin for manufacturing somewhere with more employee protection.

Also the culture of secrecy, would it harm Apple that much to be a little more open about what it was developing? - they excel at user experience so getting first to market should not have so much importance.