T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS): Deutsche Bank believes that T-Mobile has attractive valuation and strong operating momentum, and has upgraded shares from Hold to Buy, as well as raising its price target from $11 to $28.

Sprint-Nextel (NYSE:S):  Amid the numerous bids that Sprint has itself involved in, the third largest carrier in the U.S. has reached out on its own and purchased Handmark, an app developer and distributor that has been around even longer than Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone. “As a long-time partner of Sprint, we’ve worked together on some of the mobile industry’s most successful initiatives, said Augie Grasis, Handmark founder and CEO. Joining forces is a natural progression to our relationship and will help scale our mobile media business,” the release said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Don’t Miss: The Lumia 925: Nokia’s New Plan In the Smartphone Game.

Long-established sellers of diamonds and increasingly popular yoga-inspired athletic apparel retailers have nothing on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). In terms of sales per square foot of retail space, the iPhone maker operates the most successful and profitable stores in the United States, performing twice as well as Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), the second best retailer, and three times as well as Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU), the third best retailer. In general, the company’s stores have outpaced the rest of the retail industry in sales per customer.

Industry data compiled by Asymco’s Horace Dediu showed that visitors to Apple’s retail stores soared 7 percent in the last quarter while revenue-per-visitor hit a new record of $57.60. This is an increase from the $51.75 spent per visitor in the first quarter of 2012. Due to these solid numbers, the average revenue per Apple store reached $13 million in the first three months of 2013, the highest level for a non-holiday quarter.

Overall, Apple stores are now generating a profit of about $12 per visitor per quarter, according to Dediu.

Alongside the increases in revenue and profit, the average number of visitors has steadied to 250,000 per quarter, a quantum increase from approximately 170,000 per store per quarter for the 12-month period ending with the first quarter of 2010. Dediu postulated that the reason for this growth could be the increase in floor space of newer stores and the renovation of older stores.

The increase in visitors not only indicates that the company has made efforts to keep its stores appealing, but also hints at the boost in popularity that Apple products have enjoyed during the same period. In order to maintain the service standard for which Apple stores are known, and to staff new locations, the company grew its workforce correspondingly. Since 2007, employment has more than doubled, with each location now employing an average of 110 workers.

As Dediu’s interpretation of the data suggests, Apple’s retail performance remains constrained by store size — which dictates the number of visitors — and the total number of stores. He noted that the company’s strategy to boost sales seems to rest on expanding stores in the United States and opening new stores abroad.

Follow Meghan on Twitter @MFoley_WSCS

Don’t Miss: Is the U.S. Government Giving Apple Shoddy Treatment?

Smartphones are expected to continue to dominate the market. Shawn Lee, research director at NPD DisplaySearch, said, “The global smartphone market is expected to continue growing rapidly over the next two years. With larger, higher-resolution displays, faster processors, and higher-capacity cellular systems being built, the smartphone is not only becoming a must-have device, but is satisfying many needs that formerly required other computing and consumer electronics devices.”

Entry-level smartphones costing under $200 are gaining momentum most quickly. As networks have continued to upgrade to 3G and 4G download speeds, emerging markets for smartphones have grown. Demand for improved smartphone screens has increased with demand for the phones. Full high-definition screens will show a huge increase this year, from 1.7 million units in 2012 to 113 million in 2013. Screen sizes are expected to change in 2013 as well, with 57 percent ranging between four and five inches and 16 percent over five inches.

Asia currently dominates the market for smartphones. China leads in both the entry-level category and in smartphone sales as a whole, with Asia accounting for half of smartphone sales. Smartphone sales in Southeast Asia rose 61 percent in the last year.

Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital World at GfK Asia, believes demand for the phones will continue to be seen in developing regions like Asia, ”Given that there is a substantial two-thirds of the region’s population who have yet to make the switch, there is still a sizable potential market for manufacturers to capture and convert to smartphone users…Consumers in the developing regions will continue to be the driving force of the smartphone sector’s strong double or even triple digit growth performance in the coming years.”

Samsung (SSNLF.PK) is the current leader in smartphone sales, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and LG following in second and third. These companies will have to respond to the increased demand for entry-level smartphones and new screen technology.

As it becomes more commonplace for people to own smartphones and the technology in the phones improves, sales can be expected to continue to increase both in the U.S. and abroad.

Source: NPD DisplaySearch Smartphone Quarterly

Don’t Miss: Can LG Bend Its Way to the Top In the Smartphone War?

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC): Outgoing CEO Paul Otellini has made a somewhat startling confession: in 2005, Intel was approached by Steve Jobs, who asked Otellini and the chipmaker to produce the processors necessary for Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) upcoming iPhone, to which Otellini refused on the basis that Apple was offering less than Intel’s forecast cost for the hardware. However, the forecast was a blunder — a substantial one at that, as it would have made the company about $100 billion. Now, new CEO Brain Krzanich has pledged to get the company on its feet in the mobile industry.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA): Though Intel saw GPU sales decline and AMD saw saws lay flat, Nvidia surprised the industry by showing sales gains, even amid a tanking PC industry. Intel fell by 5.3 percent; AMD posted a 0.3 percent decline, while Nvidia gained 3.6 percent for GPU sales, indicating that not all units are equal. Jon Peddie Research, which compiled the data, did not account for smartphone or tablet chip sales — however, Nvidia would more than likely have fared even better, as its Tegra 3 chip can be found in Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) previous Nexus 7 tablet.

Don’t Miss: Dell’s Results Were Not Enough, Icahn Wants to Know More.

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) 2011 debut of Siri — the voice-activated personal assistant — was seen by most as a revolutionary step forward in human-computer interaction. However, sometimes Siri can also be an incredibly frustrating obstacle to human-computer interaction. Rob LeFebvre at Cult of Mac has some tips to help users keep themselves from swearing at Siri and hurtling their iDevices in a fit of irritation.

No matter how clearly you think you are enunciating, there are bound to be some occasions when Siri will misunderstand you. Rather than heading right to the home button, try using the keyboard to correct the misinterpreted command. Although it seems counterproductive to edit the text of a spoken command, it will probably annoy you less than repeatedly being misheard by Siri.

Another way to improve Siri’s command interpretation is to provide a clearer input channel. Siri normally uses the microphones on your iPad or iPhone, but you can use any of your Bluetooth-enabled accessories in lieu of the default microphones. This also works for any Bluetooth devices that have a speaker function, so you can hear Siri’s responses better too.

Finally, you can make your interactions with Siri seem less “robotic” by adding relationship designations to your contacts. By simply by stating the relationship to Siri, the digital assistant will search your contacts for the associated name and request, if you would like to add the specific relationship designation. So next time you call your brother, you can ask Siri to “call my brother,” rather than stating his full name. Although this is a minor time-saver, it does help create a greater sense of natural language human-computer interaction.

Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Don’t Miss: Smartphone and GPS Map Wars Heat Up For Apple.

Forrester Research surveyed 9,766 “global information workers” to figure out which mobile ecosystem attracts the most faithful users. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of computer users have little to no brand loyalty at all. In fact, 85 percent of worldwide computer users were labeled by Forrester Research as “Free Radicals.” This group of users is not loyal to any particular mobile ecosystem and consists of users who either own a single device or own multiple devices from various ecosystems.

The remaining 15 percent of the world’s mobile computer users fall into two different categories of ecosystem dedication — “Loyalists” or “Devotees.” The “Loyalists” consist of users who own multiple devices that are primarily from one ecosystem. However, users in this group also own mobile devices from competing ecosystems. According to Forrester’s survey, 58 percent of Apple’s worldwide users fall into this category.

According to IDC statistics, Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android dominates the worldwide smartphone operating system market with a 75 percent share. However, the Mountain View-based company apparently only inspires 17 percent of global computer users to be “Loyalists.”

Finally, the “Devotees” are users who exhibit the greatest bond to a particular ecosystem to the exclusion of any other. These users have many kinds of mobile devices but every device is meshed to their favorite mobile ecosystem. Apple dominated in this category as well, with 56 percent of its worldwide users falling into this extremely faithful category.

Surprisingly, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inspired similarly high levels of dedication in its users. The Redmond-based software company grabbed 44 percent of the “Devotee” worldwide user population in this survey. Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that this is likely due to the widespread use of the Windows operating system in the workplace. However, there was little middle ground in Microsoft users’ ecosystem loyalty. Only 17 percent of worldwide users were categorized as “Loyalists.”

Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Don’t Miss: Hey, Hedge Fund Managers Still Love Apple!

After taking a scary dip in early April, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock stabilized somewhat in the last week, staying above the level of $450 per share for the entire five-day period. Despite experiencing some minor rises and falls, the stock has advanced nearly 16 percent since closing at a 52-week low of $385.10 on April 19. Shares continued trading within their current range Monday, closing up $1.77, or 0.39 percent, at $454.74. Here’s a cheat sheet to today’s top Apple stories:

Finally, Apple Gets Pentagon Approval

After being beaten in the race to get Pentagon approval by rivals BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) and Samsung (SSNLF.PK); Apple has finally received its Department of Defense security approval. The recent approval covers all of Apple’s iOS 6-powered devices. Earlier this month, BlackBerry won security approval for its BlackBerry 10 operating system, and Samsung won approval of its Android Knox-based mobile devices. Although Samsung’s standard devices do not meet the military’s security specifications, the South Korea-based smartphone maker was allowed to beef up its security with Knox Security software… (Read more.)

Could This Be the Future of Apple’s iOS?

Could this be the iOS 7 reboot that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) users have been waiting for? Simply Zesty, a full service digital agency based in the UK, has created an amazing concept video that outlines the expected design changes that users are anticipating for Apple’s new mobile operating system. Simply Zesty describes its video as “our concept designs for iOS 7, gathered from the rumours, speculation and features we think Apple should include on the new OS.”

Apple will officially unveil the new iOS 7 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled for June 10-14. Apple’s iOS has not had a major makeover since the iPhone’s debut in 2007, and this could be a make-or-break scenario for the next generation of Apple’s mobile operating system… (Read more.)

Major Apple Supplier Gets April Sales Bump

After posting a first quarter drop in earnings revenue, Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has seen its latest figures rise. According to Patently Apple, Foxconn saw a 12 percent monthly increase in total sales for April due to an increased demand for consumer electronics products. Foxconn is one of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) largest suppliers, with an estimated 40 percent of its total sales revenue derived from the Cupertino-based company… (Read more.)

Don’t Miss: Is Apple Ignoring a Growing Screen Size Trend?

Tuesday

As Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) seeks to build relations beyond its main supplier Foxconn and attempts to add Samsung (SSNLF.PK), shares of the iPhone maker slumped on Tuesday. Following Monday’s gains, the stock ended the day down $10.88, or 2.39 percent, at $443.86. Here’s a cheat sheet to today’s top Apple stories:

Is the Average Joe Still Buying Apple?

Apple has come under a great deal of scrutiny over the past several months. The world’s largest publicly traded company suffered a sharp correction that started last year, and faces worries about new product offerings on an almost daily basis. However, the average joe investor still believes in Apple.

Shares of Apple dropped nearly 17 percent in the first quarter, compared to double-digit gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. In April, the company’s stock price even reached a fresh 52-week low of $385. Many investors saw this as a buying opportunity, though. According to brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, more of its clients now own Apple than ever before. In fact, Apple is the most widely held stock in terms of dollars invested, and the second most popular by the number of investors, behind General Electric (NYSE:GE)… (Read more.)

Another Way Samsung Has Copied Apple

Samsung’s penchant for mimicking Apple’s products is an open secret in the smartphone industry, although it is still widely disputed whether or not this copying rises to the level of illegal patent infringement. Now it seems that Samsung’s aping of Apple has even gone beyond the similarities found in both of the companies’ products. Just like its Cupertino-based rival, the South Korea-based smartphone maker has recently started to accumulate a large cash pile. Although not quite as large as Apple’s approximately $145 billion cash hoard, Samsung has still accumulated an impressive amount… (Read more.)

Is China Mobile Preparing for Apple’s Arrival?

Is Apple on the verge of laying the cornerstone for its Chinese smartphone market ambitions? Various reports seem to point to an upcoming deal between China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), China’s largest carrier, and Apple. China Mobile has over 700 million subscribers in the Greater China market.

After returning from a trip to China, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analyst Katy Huberty wrote in a note to investors that Apple is in the process of acquiring “TD-LTE licenses, and related phone launches are expected by year-end.” China Mobile currently has a limited TD-LTE network but is supposedly working on expanding its range… (Read more.)

Don’t Miss: Another Way Samsung Has Copied Apple.

Wednesday

The share prices of oft compared tech giants — Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) — have greatly diverged since their stock trajectories crossed paths last year. After climbing to a peak of $463.84 last week, Apple’s stock is once again on a downward slide, and it has fallen over 19 percent this year alone. On the other hand, Google stock has risen about 28 percent this year and recently broke the $900 mark. In fact, shares of Google closed up 3.25 percent at $915.89, while shares of Apple closed down 3.38 percent at $428.85.

Here’s a cheat sheet to today’s top Apple stories:

13F Filing Countdown: Big Investors Reveal Positions on Apple

Has Apple become the new favorite stock for big investors to buy this year or has it become the latest pariah tech stock everyone’s trying to ditch? Apple watchers will have their answers by tonight, when major investors such as George Soros and Warren Buffett must file their 13F-HR reports. These reports will disclose what stocks these equity managers bought and sold during the three-month period that ended March 31 of this year.

Although many hedge fund managers already revealed their perspectives at the Skybridge Alternatives Conference, or SALT, last week, the upcoming 13F filings will give investors some definitive answers on what these major financial players have been up to when it comes to the Cupertino-based company’s shares… (Read more.)

What’s Apple’s Big iPhone 5S Change?

Has Apple finally solved its physical home button problems on the next generation of iPhone? Since it is pressed every time the device is used, the iPhone’s home button is one of the most repaired parts of Apple’s flagship smartphone. Although Apple Stores can already easily replace any broken physical home buttons on the current iPhone, this new type of home button will eliminate even that minor in-house repair inconvenience.

An unconfirmed report from Taiwan’s TechNews website via Cult of Mac states that Apple is planning on replacing the iPhone’s physical home button with a sapphire crystal capacitive touch button that will also function as a fingerprint sensor… (Read more.)

David Tepper Sours On Apple

A recent filing reveals that David Tepper — the billionaire manager of the Appaloosa Management hedge fund — cut his stake in Apple by 41 percent in the first quarter of this year. During the 3-month period that ended March 31, Appaloosa unloaded 372,661 Apple shares, leaving the hedge fund with a total of 540,000 Apple shares worth approximately $239 million. Appaloosa manages a fund worth $17.9 billion.

At the end of 2012, Appaloosa held 912,661 shares of the Cupertino-based company’s stock, but it began to reduce its Apple exposure when the stock fell 17 percent in the first few months of this year…(Read more.)

You can follow Meghan on Twitter (@MFoley_WSCS) for the latest industry news.

Don’t Miss: David Tepper Sours On Apple.

Thursday

As concerns for the company’s future grow, a new round of 13F statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the past few days have revealed that a number of mutual funds and hedge fund managers have trimmed their Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) holdings, and these sell offs put some pressure on the iPhone maker’s stock. But nevertheless, the company closed up $5.73, or 1.34 percent, at $434.58. Here’s a cheat sheet to today’s top Apple stories:

David Tepper Is Not the Only One Dumping Apple

Apple closed down 3.38 percent at $428.85 Wednesday, falling below its 50-day moving average for the first time in close to a month. The fact that shares fell below this psychologically important level for the second time in less than a month, the stock hit a new 52-week low, and the company reported its first quarter-over-quarter earnings decline in a decade all in the same four-week span has made investors nervous.

Well-known hedge-fund manager Julian Robertson dumped his firm’s entire stake in Apple during the first three months of this year; a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed that his Tiger Management’s investment portfolio did not hold any Apple shares as of the end of March… (Read more.)

Is Apple In Trouble Over Taxes?

Approximately $100 billion of Apple’s cash reserves is strategically kept overseas and out of the reach of America’s tax collectors. Although this is a common practice for large companies with overseas earnings, it appears that Apple will soon be the subject of a Senate hearing on its offshore tax practices. According to anonymous sources via Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook will testify at the hearing that is scheduled for May 21.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has previously looked into the tax strategies of other large technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)… (Read more.)

Apple’s App Store Rings Up 50 Billion Downloads

Ever since Apple initiated its app download countdown ticker earlier this month, many countdown ticker watchers have been predicting that the App Store would cross the 50 billion mark threshold before the month was out. It turns out that they were right. Apple surpassed 50 billion downloads yesterday, around the same time that rival Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that Google Play had hit the 48 billion download mark… (Read more.)

Don’t Miss: How Low Has the iPhone’s Market Share Fallen?

Friday

While shares of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) top tech competitor Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) have stuck above $900 for the past several days, the iPhone maker has remained mired in concerns for its innovative capabilities. According to a recent survey commissioned by Bloomberg, 71 percent of respondents believe that the Cupertino-based technology company has lost its position as the lead industry innovator. Although 43 percent of respondents believe Apple will eventually regain its lead position, 28 percent believe Apple has permanently surrendered its innovation crown.

Ending a tough week, shares of Apple ended the week down 4.35 percent. The stock closed in the red on Friday as well, dropping down $1.32, or 0.30 percent, to $433.26. Here’s a cheat sheet to today’s top Apple stories:

Is Apple Losing This Huge Market to BlackBerry and Samsung?

Is the Indian market slipping through Apple’s fingers? According to analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, Apple is indeed losing the hearts and minds of India’s consumers due to a combination of several factors. One of the major reasons that Apple is failing in the Indian market is because of a lack of Apple stores. India has laws that prohibit the Cupertino-based company from opening a retail store without also establishing a manufacturing… (Read more.)

This Apple Supplier Is Still Messing Up Labor Practices

Longtime Apple supplier Foxconn is being squeezed between a rock and a hard place as the Taipei-based company tries to reduce workers’ hours while simultaneously keeping up with production orders. The maker of Apple’s iPad and iPhone products has been the target of scrutiny by the Washington-based Fair Labor Association ever since Apple became a member of the organization after a rash of Foxconn employee suicides in 2010.

Although the FLA says Foxconn has resolved almost all of its factory safety and worker condition problems, the Chinese manufacturer is still having difficulty meeting the July deadline for reducing workers’ hours. So far Foxconn has reduced the maximum amount of weekly hours to 60. However, the company originally promised to reduce the number of weekly work hours to 40 with nine hours of overtime by July of 2013…(Read more.)

Apple CEO Wants Drastic Changes in Tax Laws

With less than a week to prepare for his appearance at a Senate hearing that is looking into Apple’s offshore tax practices, CEO Tim Cook has announced that he plans to ask for a corporate tax law overhaul while he is in Washington. According to the Washington Post, Cook is seeking a “dramatic simplification” of the current corporate tax laws and will offer up several specific changes he believes will encourage more companies to repatriate overseas earnings. Apple currently keeps approximately $100 billion of its cash reserves overseas and out of the reach of America’s tax collectors. Apple could face a corporate tax rate of 35 percent under current U.S. tax laws if it tries to bring its cash into the U.S… (Read more.)

Don’t Miss: Will the iPad Mini 2 Hit By Summer’s End?

However, even after returning a lot of cash to shareholders, the iPhone maker is still left holding a significant amount, not to mention the new cash it is continually generating. Apple generated $12.5 billion in cash flow in the last quarter alone.

Some investors have called for the company to start looking at mergers and acquisitions as another way to put its cash hoard to use. Some would like to see Apple expand through a large acquisition such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) did with Motorola Mobility or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) did with Skype. However, Apple doesn’t seem inclined to buy companies just for the sake of owning them. The largest company that it acquired in recent memory was AuthenTec in 2012, which only cost Apple the relatively small amount of $356 million.

Instead of company mergers and acquisitions, Apple seems to be focusing its expenditure on capital investment. Apple’s chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer stated earlier this year that “we expect to spend a little bit under $1 billion in retail stores and the other $9 billion is spent in a variety of areas. We’re buying equipment that we will own that we will put in our partners facilities. Our primary motivation there is for a supply, but we get other benefits as well.”

Besides expanding its physical retail presence, Apple is also adding to its data center capabilities. This includes the construction of a massive data center site located about 15 miles east of Reno, Nevada. This data center will support Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud services.

Apple is also dropping about $4 billion on software development incentives. Apple takes a 30 percent distribution fee from third-party app sales and is reinvesting a large portion of this money back into its thriving app ecosystem.

Apple is also spending a significant amount of cash on its new Apple Campus 2, otherwise known as the “Spaceship Campus.” Although the project was originally slated for completion in 2015, it is now planned to be finished in 2016. According to anonymous sources via Bloomberg Businessweek, “the budget for Apple’s Campus 2 has ballooned from less than $3 billion to nearly $5 billion” since it was originally announced.

Finally, Apple is handing over a significant portion of its cash pile to the Internal Revenue Service. Apple paid $6 billion in federal corporate income tax in fiscal 2012 and is on route to pay $7 billion in federal taxes this year.

Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Don’t Miss: Apple CEO Wants Drastic Changes in Tax Laws.

Before Apple released the iPhone in 2007, the company approached Intel about possibly becoming the chip supplier for a new product. This was not long after Apple controversially switched from PowerPC processors to Intel x86 processors for its Macintosh computers in 2006. Unfortunately for Otellini, Intel and Apple were unable to reach a mutual agreement on how much the Cupertino-based company should pay for the chip.

As Otellini explained to The Atlantic, “At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought.”

The product that Apple wanted Intel to provide chips for was of course, the iPhone. However, in Otellini’s defense, this was before the emergence of the smartphone market and no one knew that the iPhone would become one of Apple’s most successful products. As the CEO sheepishly pointed out, “The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do.”

So what did Otellini learn from his mistake in missing the lucrative iPhone gravy train? Otellini offered some words of wisdom for CEOs and investors alike. “The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I’ve ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut. My gut told me to say yes,” he said. Don’t worry Otellini — to paraphrase Casablanca – you’ll always have the Mac.

Here’s how Apple and Intel has traded over the past week.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Don’t Miss: Apple Goes Big With New Display Technology.

Questions about working conditions at longtime Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) supplier Foxconn are being raised once again as reports emerge of three worker suicides in the last three weeks. Non-profit organization China Labor Watch announced news of the worker deaths in a press release on Friday.

According to China Labor Watch, all of the suicides occurred at Foxconn’s factory in the central city of Zhengzhou. On April 24, a 24-year old male worker who had only been working at the factory for two days jumped to his death off a dormitory building. On April 27, a 23-year old female worker jumped off the twelfth floor of an apartment building.

The latest suicide was a married 30-year old male who jumped off a building on May 14. He had worked at the factory for approximately three weeks. Although these suicides may be related to poor working conditions in Foxconn’s factory, there could also be unrelated causes.

China Labor Watch speculates that the recent suicides may be related to a new Foxconn “silence mode” policy that dictates that workers who talk on the job will be terminated. However, China Labor Watch also reports that the latest suicide may have been related to “relationship problems.”

Apple joined the Washington-based Fair Labor Association after 13 documented Foxconn employee suicides in 2010. The FLA recently said that Foxconn had resolved almost all of its factory safety and worker condition problems, although the Taiwan-based manufacturer is still having difficulty in reducing its workers’ weekly hours.

Besides making Apple’s iPad and iPhone products, Foxconn also assembles products for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Sony (NYSE:SNE), and Nokia (NYSE:NOK). Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Don’t Miss: This Apple Supplier Is Still Messing Up Labor Practices.