SHANGHAI, CHINA--A New York University student recently interned undercover in a factory here that assembles Apple iPhones. He worked six days per week installing screws into iPhones for about $2.50 per hour. More

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Researchers at the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a mobile phone that can put itself together.

FORT WORTH, TX—Google has caught the “Made in America” bug. Motorola Mobility, the handset maker acquired by Google, says its next phone, called Moto X, will be made at an assembly plant here.

BEIJING, China—A Foxconn executive blamed the shortage of the iPhone 5 on the device’s complicated design, calling the phone “the most difficult device that we have ever assembled.”