Engadget reported a few hours ago that Foxconn’s Taiyuan plant in China saw a riot occur earlier this morning. While Foxconn is not an exclusive Apple parts manufacturer, that particular factory did have a stake in the fruity company’s latest smartphone, since they produce the back cases of the new iPhone 5 in addition to numerous other devices, according to an undercover report from a Chinese newspaper just last month. Not only that, Engadget’s translation of the report did mention Foxconn’s alleged “harsh management as well as ‘practically compulsory’ over-time work” in addition to citing “unofficial reports claiming the ’2,000-people’ riot was triggered by security guards hitting a worker at 10pm local time.”
Could this result in a delay for iPhone 5 production? Perhaps not, assuming that this is a one-off and isolated incident, although there has been another report of a riot breaking out at Chengdu. Needless to say, it would be putting the cart before the horse to say that the ramp-up of the iPhone 5’s production is the main spark for the riot, but one still cannot rule that out completely with conviction. What do you think of the entire shebang?