Apple production line shows iPhone is basically handmade

ABC's Nightline special episode offered an inside look at Apple’s supply chain revealing that the iPhone, with 141 separate steps that go into its production, is practically a handmade device, while an iPad takes five days and passes through 325 hands during production. Foxconn manages to produce 300,000 camera modules for the iPad daily.

Apple granted reporter Bill Weir permission to go inside Foxconn's factories to see the working conditions as its products were being made for the 30-minute broadcast. However, initial response to the story was that it revealed hardly anything new about the situation.

Wages of the worker were $1.78 an hour and new workers were required to go through three days of training and "team building" exercises before starting work. But at the same time workers also pay for their own food,  and pay $17.50 a month to share a company dorm room with five to seven others.

Days before the show aired, Nightline promised viewers a "fascinating look into a hidden corner of our world" through the report.

"We will show you how your iPad, your iPhone, your MacBook is made, and we will meet the people who made them," he said in a teaser. "We'll show you how these folks come on buses, sometimes for days, to travel to the Foxconn gates, desperate for a chance to wipe a screen or solder a chip for 10 hours a day at less than $1.50 an hour."