15 minutes of web fame

The Mysterious iPhone Girl

Andy Warhol famous quote that everyone would be famous for at least 15 minutes seems to apply here - but as a kind of a weird simulacrum of a web fame. What may have happened is that, as a routine test, the girl and other co-workers were probably checking if everything was OK with the new iPhone they had just put together, so they took some pictures as a test. The protocol says, however, that they would have to have deleted the pictures right after having taken them. But they forgot


By GABRIELA ZAGO
from Pelotas, BRAZIL


When buying a new technology product, have you ever wanted to get to know how that device was made? A British consumer accidentally had a clue on that last month. Mark Mitchell, from UK, received his brand new iPhone 3G and it came with a weird surprise - he has found in his cellphone three pictures of a Chinese girl working on the line production of an iPhone factory. The curious fact was posted at the MacRumors Forum on August 20 by the consumer, identified as markm49uk. Rightly after, the pictures generated a large discussion among other users of the forum about identity and fate of the girl - would her be destinated to be fired for having used a device still in the line production?

Since then, the iPhone Girl - as she started to be called - has became an instant hit on Digg and all over the Internet. A search for iPhone girl at Google.cn brings as many as 20 million results. With all that sudden - and brief - fame, however, according to the South China Morning Post, the girl, who works at the Shenzhen's Foxconn Technology Group factory, felt "shocked by her sudden celebrity and afraid of media spotlight".

Andy Warhol famous quote that everyone would be famous for at least 15 minutes seems to apply here - but as a kind of a weird simulacrum of a web fame. What may have happened is that, as a routine test, the girl and other co-workers were probably checking if everything was OK with the new iPhone they had just put together, so they took some pictures as a test. The protocol says, however, that they would have to have deleted the pictures right after having taken them. But they forgot. And that led to a hit on the Internet, and to an unwanted cyberfame.

Chinese people tried to crowdsource for information on the girl. Lots of information came from improbable sources. Many alleged that had met her before. Meanwhile, at least two domains were registered to post information on the mysterious girl: iphonegirl.net and iphonegirl.cn. Mystery was solved when FoxConn (an Apple subsidiary in China) confirmed that the girl works on the Shenzhen (South China) factory of the group. And - as they announced - she would not fired.


(Published: 10.09.2008.)