Apple chief executive Steve Jobs finds "troubling" a string of worker deaths at Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles the company's iPhones and iPads, but claims its factory in China "is not a sweatshop."

Jobs was making his first public comments about apparent employees' suicides at a complex operated by the unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which also counts HP and Dell among its clients.

Speaking at this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in California, Jobs once again sniped at Adobe's "waning" Flash technology, vowed not to get into a search battle with Google, and waxed lyrical about the future of tablet PCs.

Although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn’s suicide rate is well below the China average. We are all over this - Steve Jobs

Jobs also talked about how he conceived the iPad even before the iPhone. Apple released the iPad in April and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 2 million units in the first 60 days.

But a string of deaths at Foxconn's base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device's success.

"It's a difficult situation," Jobs, dressed in his customary black turtleneck and jeans, said on stage. "We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution."

However, in an email exchange with a labour campaigner, Jobs struck an altogether different note. When challenged on the suicides by Jay Yerex, a campaigner from LabourStart, Jobs responded that "although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn’s suicide rate is well below the China average," before adding "We are all over this," according to a report by MacStories.net.

When pressed on exactly what Apple was doing in China and its pledge to be socially responsible, Jobs later retorted: "You should educate yourself. We do more than any other company on the planet."

When pressed on exactly what Apple was doing in China and its pledge to be socially responsible, Jobs later retorted: "You should educate yourself. We do more than any other company on the planet."

do they?
I thought they subcontracted out there manufacturing to the lowest cost producer just like every other major corporation?