For once, Apple is in trouble. As you may be aware, The New York Times has published an investigative article casting doubt on Apple's labour policy in China. Overworked factory employees, under-age workers, industrial accidents... all the evidence suggested that the environment in which your iPhone or iPad is born is far from healthy. Apple itself seemed to corroborate the report with its own audits, which detail the problems that have occurred in its Chinese factories in the hope that it could prevent them from happening again. But the pressure on external suppliers to produce our favourite gadgets cheaply and in vast quantities is a recipe for disaster.
So much for the crisis. Now what about the response? The article said that Apple had refused to comment, describing it as «secretive». And consumers? Any moves to boycott Apple? At the time of writing, the Boycott Apple page on Facebook has 1,133 likes and 11 comments. Apple sold 37 millions of iPhones last quarter. The irony is that the bourgeois-bohemian, left-leaning, Occupy Wall Street types who normally scream about labour abuses, are also Apple addicts. Did they dump their Mac? Ditch their iPad? Divorce Siri? It would be easier to come off crack. So for now, Apple can probably rest easy. But perhaps not forever. Love dies fast in tech world. Look what happened to Nokia.
