Steve Jobs 'Troubled' by Apple Plant Suicides

The situation at a suicide-plagued plant making Apple components in China is "troubling" but the factory is no sweatshop, Steve Jobs told a tech conference last night. "It's a difficult situation," said Jobs, who was making his first appearance at the All Things Digital conference since 2007. "We're trying to understand before we go in and say we know the solution."

"We are on top of this. We look at everything at these companies," Jobs said, noting that the suicide rate among Foxconn's 400,000 workers is lower than the general suicide rate in the US. Jobs also spoke of Apple's overtaking of Microsoft in market value for the first time, calling it "surreal," predicted a very bright future for tablet computers, discussed the iPhone prototype left in a bar—suggesting it may actually have been stolen from a bag—and sniped at Flash, saying the technology has "had its day." (More All Things Digital stories.)