Students are being forced to work overtime to help Apple meet iPhone X demand: Report

Apple supplier Foxconn has reportedly employed thousands of students to assemble iPhone X who are forced to work overtime as the Cupertino-based company struggles to meet the demand after production delays.

According to The Financial Times, students in the age group 17-19 were hired as interns in September and were told to work at the assembling unit in Zhengzhou, China, to work for three months to get "work experience in order to graduate".

"The work has nothing to do with our studies. We are being forced by our school to work here," Yang who assembles 1,200 iPhone X cameras a day was quoted as saying in the report .

She is among a group of 3,000 students from Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School who are working at a local Foxconn facility.

"Apple and Foxconn acknowledged they had discovered cases of student interns working overtime and said they were taking remedial action. But both companies said the students were working voluntarily," the report added.

According to Foxconn, its internship programme was "carried out in co-operation with local governments and a number of vocational schools in China".

Three other Foxconn plants in China were found to be in breach of numerous health and safety regulations, exceeding working hours, five years ago, The Guardian reported.

"When Apple's production demands it, Apple completely ignores the labour standards they have set. Apple allows factories to make workers put in overtime hours without restriction... and for student workers to work night shifts and put in excessive overtime hours," Li Qiang, Executive Director of New York-based nonprofit China Labour Watch, was quoted as saying in the Guardian report.

After facing a lacklustre response to iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus globally, including in India, Apple placed its bet on successful delivery of "super premium" iPhone X.

However, several media reports claimed that Apple is facing a huge supply gap primarily for two reasons: difficulties in assembling the new facial identification software and 3D camera, and "off the charts" pre-orders for iPhone X after the Apple fraternity didn't make the expected beeline for iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

Analysts had warned that the stock on hand is scarce, owing to constrained supply of key iPhone X components.

The iPhone X, which marks the 10th anniversary of the device, costs Rs 89,000 for a 64 GB model and Rs 1.02 lakh for the 256 GB variant.

4 silly problems Apple iPhone users have faced in the past

Apple rolled out on Thursday another update to its iOS operating system. Version 11.1.2 comes with routine bug fixes and resolves a bizarre issue where iPhone X displays would stop responding in cold weather. The iOS 11.1.2 update also fixes an issue that caused distortion in Live photos and videos captured with iPhone X.

Apple has had a topsy-turvy run with iOS 11, which officially rolled out to users on September 19. Ever since, iOS users have faced problems such as battery drain, slow performance on older phones and issues with Wi-Fi. While a lot of the issues have been fixed by Apple, there's still a long list of complaints that need to be addressed.

To be fair, bug fixes and performance improvements are quite common in software. But here's a look at some of the most prominent of issues, both hardware and software, that Apple's phone suffered from once:

iOS 10.0: Brick update

The iOS 10 was one of the biggest updates to Apple's software, bringing altogether a new User Interface (UI) and various new features such as revamped iMessage. Apple CEO Tim Cook went on to describe iOS 10 as the "mother of all releases." But the thing is, iOS 10 caused a number of iPhones to brick - or become unusable. The issue affected a small number of users during the first hour of release. The company was forced to release iOS 10.1 immediately after.

Apple iPhone 4: Antennagate

When any scandal is suffixed by a "gate", you know it is big and worth your attention. Back in 2010, iPhone 4 users would lose reception when held by the antenna band, also dubbed as the "death grip."

Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs held a press conference to address the controversy stating, "This has been blown so out of proportion that it's incredible. There is no Antennagate."

Later, it turned, out that a lot of smartphones of the time suffered from a "death grip" problem. But this didn't stop Motorola and Verizon to make fun of the iPhone 4 issue. In a full-page ad in the New York Times, Verizon teased the Droid X and also took a dig at Apple, saying, ". it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls." Apple later gave away a free bumper to fix the problem.

Despite the controversy and a genuine issue with the design, the iPhone 4 continued to sell in the market.

Apple 6S: Bendgate

Apple's 2015 models, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, were somewhat flexible models, to put in a manner of speaking. The smartphones would bend if someone applied enough force, and pictures of it soon started to get viral, birthing yet another 'gate'. "Bendgate" drew a lot of attention especially after a demo video by a YouTuber Unbox Therapy went viral. Apple later agreed to replace the units after a visual inspection. Check out the viral video below:

Apple Maps

Touted as an alternative to Google Maps, Apple's own Maps service received much flak after its launch in September, 2012. It initially showed wrong and inaccurate information, forcing authorities to appeal to users not to rely on the service.

Tim Cook later tendered apology for the problem and suggested users go for alternative options such as Nokia Maps (since dead) and Google Maps. CNNMoneyTech reported that Kennedy Center and Dulles Airport were shown inaccurately and that "its directions to the latter could get a driver arrested and possibly run over by a 747."

While Apple Maps has improved over the years, it still doesn't work in India and you need to rely on Google Maps.