Chinese "iPhone girl" Internet Fame by a "Beautiful Mistake"

An internet forum member had the very rare chance of knowing who assembled his iPhone 3G (or at least packed the device) from the production plant when he discovered some pictures pre-installed on the phone.

The "Chinese iPhone girl" buzz started when a macrumors.com member, markm49uk, posted 3 pictures of a chinese girl on the iPhone forum last Aug. 2o.

"Not sure if this is or is not the 'norm' but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it !!!!
It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun - has anyone else found this ?"- markm49uk

In the photos, a cute young chinese girl is wearing pink striped factory uniform, a cap, and white gloves with yellow finger tips. She is smiling and making a hand victory sign (or is it peace?!) as she poses next to an iPhone in what appears to be an assembly line of the 3G phone.

The photos created enough attention on the web that news agencies in the UK and China did efforts to trace the identity of the girl. News reports say the young chinese girl works at a factory run by an Apple contractor, Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group in the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen. South China Morning Post on Wednesday quoted Foxconn spokesperson, Liu Kun, confirming that the young girl dubbed as the "iPhone girl" in the photos works at Foxconn.

The spokesperson explained that workers testing the device may have snapped the photos and forgot to delete them. Early speculations were circulating that the girl was fired from her job but a Foxconn spokesman claimed it as baseless and said that such "beautiful mistakes" are unavoidable. The identity of the girl is still undisclosed and Apple has not released comment on the issue.

Will this be another chinese hype? We'll sure know in the coming days as the "iPhone girl" buzz continues to become viral.

(Chinese "iPhone girl" photo from www.macrumors.com)