A Chinese girl is seen on an iPhone. British Internet user "Markm49uk" said when he unboxed his iPhone 3G last week he found a photo of the girl on the home screen.
She might have done nothing more than flashed a smile to her colleague testing an iPhone's camera on a Chinese production line. But it seems the colleague forgot to delete her photos, and now worldwide iPhone fans are gearing up to locate her.
The "iPhone girl" frenzy began last week when the girl's photos appeared on , a popular forum for fans of Apple products.
"Markm49uk," a British Internet user who posted the photos, said when he unboxed his iPhone 3G he found a photo of the girl on the home screen, and two more in the phone's photo album.
The photos show a round-faced Chinese girl dressed in pink, striped uniform, smiling and making a "V for Victory" gesture in what seems like an assembly line.
Many forum users commented that they found the girl "very cute." A netizen named Chris Meadows wrote, "I know that if I knew my iPhone would come with a photo of a cute, smiling girl on it, I would almost be willing to pay extra. (Especially if it included her email address.)"Other people worry that "she is so fired" because of the incident.
"She is definitely not fired," an unidentified representative from Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, southern China, told the newspaper Xiandai Kuaibao.
The factory assembles most of Apple's iPhones and iPods, the newspaper says.
The representative confirmed that the "iPhone girl" was one of its employees but declined to give details.
He said it was likely that the test photos were left in the phone's memory "accidentally." The company is investigating the incident.
Though the "iPhone girl" is yet to be traced, her popularity continues to grow. Someone has even created an English-language Web site, , updated with global media reports on her.
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英国网友“markm49uk”没想到,自己新买的iPhone手机里会有个中国女孩的亲切照片；这位被称作“中国最美打工妹”的无名女孩6天就火遍全球。眼下，国外国内都有了专门为她建立的网站。昨日下午,富士康科技集团相关负责人表示，女孩确是公司员工。
近日一位英国消费者购买了一部全新的iPhone手机,激活之后,发现主屏幕上显示的是一张可爱的中国女孩的照片，而且手机里不只一张这样的照片。这位消费者便将照片发到网络论坛，照片随即被传播开来。很多网友被女孩的笑容感染，有国外网友甚至还为她制作了网站，称她为“iPhoneGirl”。
苹果的iPhone和iPod主要是由代工生产商富士康科技集团生产。很多人此前怀疑,这张照片是在深圳的富士康工厂内拍摄，有网友后来表示，女孩确实是富士康观澜科技园C区三栋手机检测生产线上的员工，照片传播后她已经被开除。
昨日下午5时许,记者来到位于宝安区的多家富士康工厂寻找这位女孩。在C区三栋楼下，一名工作人员说,从女孩的浅红色穿着来看,确实是公司的员工,而且极有可能就是五楼检测车间的员工。
富士康科技集团一名相关负责人说,手机女孩已经被证实是富士康科技集团的员工,但他否认女孩已经被开除。至于女孩照片现身iPhone手机屏幕并被传播的事情，他解释说，女孩是手机检测车间的员工，可能在进行拍照手机检测后忘记删除检测图片所致，现在他们也在调查。