The high costs of an iPhone

Apple's iPhone 5 sold out in its first weekend, with consumers buying over 5 million units. But if you were hoping to get one, don't worry, because Apple chief executive Tim Cook has assured us that, "We are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible."

But when Apple executives say "we", they actually mean their Chinese manufacturing workers. It is these factory workers who are "working hard" - more accurately, doing whatever it takes - to produce enough phones "as quickly as possible".

Whatever it takes is often too much. The recent violent conflict that erupted at an Apple supplier factory producing iPhone 5's in Taiyuan, Shanxi, was rooted in the pressure put on workers to meet Apple's production demands.

Furthermore, the riot reflects a tragic consequence of Apple's marketing strategy and rapid production model: workers pay the price.

The time period between Apple's announcement of a new product and the sale of that product is extremely short, causing a spike in demand from consumers. As millions of orders pour in for a new product, Apple puts tremendous pressure on its supplier factories in China to rapidly meet production demands. This means quickly hiring waves of new young workers who must work long, extraordinarily demanding hours, without enough time to be properly trained.

The costs of this rapid production are borne by workers. For example, China Labour Watch investigators found that in Apple's supplier factory in Zhengzhou, Henan, a production line of 87 workers was expected to assemble 3,000 iPhones a day in August.

But after last month's announcement of the iPhone 5, the same number of workers was expected to assemble 6,500 phones a day in the same amount of time; the workers are still struggling to meet this work requirement - over 10 hours a day, six days a week.