The iPhone Girl

Apple's been navigating some rougher waters these days, at least from a public relations point of view. Here at The World, we've been tracking some that have international angles to them. There was news today that the Brits have put a stop to a TV advertisement Apple was running for the iPhone 3G in the UK, claiming that the ad was "misleading" when it claimed that "all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone." Not so, said consumers, considering the iPhone doesn't come with Flash or Java, programs that, it was argued, were essential for accessing "all the parts of the Internet." The ad is not allowed to run anymore in its current form. Apple had no comment.

In China, Apple's iTunes is running into trouble over the on-again, off-again availability of an album called Songs for Tibet. Some are crying foul, saying Apple is bowing to the whims of the Chinese government when it comes to censoring material that deals with human rights issues the Chinese find, well, troublesome. Apple says -- wait for it -- "no comment."

And now, let's talk about "iPhone Girl," pictured. Her story manages to combine Apple, China and Britain -- not to mention Taiwan -- all in one strange package. See, here's how it seems to shake down. A gentleman in Kingston-Upon-Hull in Britain unboxed his new iPhone 3G, hooked it up to iTunes, and...whoops, there were already three pictures on the phone! Yep, of the girl above. The new iPhone owner was intrigued, and so he uploaded the photos to a popular Mac website and forum.

Is this normal, he asked, for iPhones to come preloaded with photos of the people who presumably assembled them?

In true Internet fashion, iPhone Girl became something of an item almost immediately. Responses and questions flooded into the site. Who is she? Where is she from? Does she still have a job?

"She is so fired," read one post on the site. 

Well, we still don't know who she is. But she works (no, she hasn't been fired) for a Taiwan-based contractor called Foxconn, which has an iPhone assembly facility in Shenzen, China. An unidentified spokesman for Foxconn also told a local newspaper in China that the photos were most likely test photos, left on the phone "accidentally."

China's Southern Metropolitan Daily newspaper dubbed her "China's prettiest factory girl."

But in the wake of the Olympics controversy over the lip-synching of the Chinese national anthem during the opening ceremonies by a young girl deemed "prettier" than the girl who actually sang the song, I think the discerning journalist has to ask...is "iPhone Girl" nothing but a stand-in for the woman who really put the phone together?

We could ask Apple...oh wait, I know the answer.

No comment.

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