Apple is hammered by China's media for alleged air and water pollution. Will this negative coverage change the behavior of Chinese suppliers who actually run the factories?

Chinese factory owner Foxconn assembles iPads and iPhones and has now announced that in the next few years it will replace a portion of its workforce -- with robots.

Your smartphone, laptop, and other high-tech consumer electronics items were probably made in China by a company called Foxconn. It has almost a million employees spread over multiple facilities. But a recent undercover survey paints a picture of a pretty bleak life for Foxconn workers. We talk about the lives of the people who build the gizmos we've come to rely on.

Pay is slowly improving for workers at Foxconn's Shenzhen plant. The market responded with a near-6% drop in Foxconn shares.