Tragic death follows fourth-gen iPhone leak

A young Foxconn employee in China has committed suicide after a prototype model of a fourth-generation iPhone he was looking after went missing.

Digital Beat explains 25 year-old Sun Danyong had taken a job looking after product communications for long-time Apple manufacturer, Foxconn. Based in Shenzen, his job involved transporting iPhone prototypes from Foxconn to Apple.

Based on numerous Chinese reports, Digital Beat claims Sun was looking after 16 prototypes, hot off the Foxconn assembly line. He found one of these prototype fourth-gen iPhones was missing, and reported it as such on July 13.
 

Two days later three Foxconn employees searched his flat (apparently illegally), with some reports claiming Sun was detained and potentially bullied during the investigation.

The poor engineer then threw himself off his balcony a little after 3am on Thursday July 16.

Apple is well-known for maintaining tight secrecy when it comes to new product announcements, playing a close game with bloggers and mainstream press alike.

Sun’s tragic suicide underlines the extreme secrecy Apple’s Far East manufacturers also adopt when it comes to unreleased or in development Apple products.