Blog: Steve Jobs Needs to go to China

by , 2:45 PM EDT, August 5th, 2008

Back in 2006, some questions were raised about the living conditions of Foxconn workers in China who were were making iPods for Apple. With the recent reports that Apple wants to significantly ramp production to 800,000 iPhones per week, Ryan Ritchey has asked in his blog whether conditions might need to be looked at again, this time by Steve Jobs himself.

"If there ever was a time that a precariously close to inhumane work environment could go over the edge, this new production ramp would be it," Mr. Ritchey said in a press release.

The producer of The Digital Lifestyle looked back at the findings from 2006 and recounted how an investigation found "a large number of beds and lockers in an open space, and from our perspective, felt too impersonal. The third contained triple-bunks, which in our opinion didn't provide reasonable personal space," as relayed by Mr. Ritchey.

Doubting whether Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and Phil Schiller have ever triple bunked, Mr. Ritchey suggested that that this might be a good time for Apple to assess the impact of the ramped up production of the iPhone.

"Go to China, Steve. Look firsthand at just how Apple products are manufactured. We'll happily go along, and vow to never raise the subject again if everything checks out," Mr. Ritchey proposed.