2013 Plastic iPhone Confirmed in Pegatron Report, Production Is Yet to Start

A report by the China Labor Watch on investigations carried out inside Pegatron factories reveals that the Taiwan-based Apple supplier is making plastic iPhones.

Confirming that Apple indeed has plans to put forth a low-priced version of its iPhone this year (or the next), the watchdog noted in the report, “Its assembled products include iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and low-priced plastic iPhones.” The same white-paper, which looks at violations incurred by Pegatron in its labor practices assembling electronic products, adds, “Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines.” This method has been used for all iPhones in the past, and it is standard procedure for any Apple device, regardless of the manufacturer.

There’s more. Apparently, the low-cost iPhone has yet to go into production. Which makes it hard to believe Apple will be able to ship these handsets around the rumored September 6 date. “The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so quantity is not as important. This makes our job more slow paced than in departments that have begun mass production schedules,” the non-profit, with offices in New York, said. Just this past weekend we reported a new iPhone leak fresh out of China which may be consistent with the plastic “budget” iPhone on track for launch this year. An image stemming from the WeiPhone forums showed numerous plastic boxes, or shipping containers, with “iPhone 5C” stamped on them, suggesting that Apple will assign this particular dubbing to its new smartphone.

The cases seemed to resemble those used by Apple to house the iPod touch in storage rooms, as well as on store shelves, lending credence to the leak.

Plastic iPhone case
Image credits to iFixit

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