iPhone Worker Finds Stardom with Snapshots

An iPhone that slipped out of the factory with pictures of a worker inside has rocketed the girl featured to Internet fame, for better or worse.

Most of us will never find out who toiled away on our stereos, computers, cars and gadgets, but for one British iPod owner, the answer literally stared back at him out of his phone. A user on the MacRumors forums discovered photos preloaded on his phone last week, apparently taken from the iPhone factory line, featuring a young Chinese worker who has since reached Internet stardom as the “iPhone girl.”

The user markm49uk posted three of the photos to MacRumors last week, which show a young girl in a pink striped jumpsuit smiling, pausing from working on the iPhones in front of her, and flashing a peace sign. “It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun,” he wrote with the post.

The ensuing flurry of posts attracted more mainstream media, and the iPhone girl has since been covered by the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Chinese media have picked up the story as well, and the factory, owned by Foxconn, has reported that the girl will not be fired as some have speculated.

It may not at all be smiles and peace signs for the iPhone girl, though. The South China Morning Post reports that news of the girl’s Internet fame has reached back to her and startled her, and she has even contemplated quitting her job to move home and retain her anonymity.