White iPhone 4 delayed, harder to make

By Reuters
Posted July 23, 2010 at 8:29 a.m.

Customers will not be able to get their hands on Apple Inc.’s white iPhone 4 until later this year, the company said on Friday, conceding that making the model has proven surprisingly difficult.

Apple, in a brief statement, said that its black iPhone 4 had not been affected. As for the white iPhone, the company said it has “continued to be more challenging to manufacture that we originally expected.”

Apple did not provide further details in its statement or give a precise date when the white model would be available.

The newest iPhone, while selling quickly, has created a series of headaches for Apple, the biggest being the suggestion that its design was flawed because of a problem with the antenna.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs, at a rare press conference last week, defended the smartphone, but offered consumers free phone cases to address reception complaints.

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4 comments:

  1. jack (me) July 23, 2010 at 11:59 a.m.

    As best I can tell from the Web, the only difference is the color, with the speculation being that somehow white plastic was harder to make. Am I missing something?

    If not, since Steve guaranteed everyone with an iPhone 4 a free cover, just ask for a white one.

  2. RegularGuy July 23, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    Translated: “We haven’t fixed the antenna problem yet, and there’s no way we’re releasing another version with the same bugs. Therefore, we’re going to blame the white, inert plastic for the delay.”

    Seems to me there are LOTS of white plastic iPods in circulation.

  3. iMan July 23, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    Not plastic. iPhone 4 uses Gorilla Glass for the front and back covers. It is apparently more difficult to get a consistent color embedding in the Gorilla Glass with the current manufacturing process.

  4. Tristan Thomas July 28, 2010 at 12:52 a.m.

    Look no matter what Apple does they will continue to dig their own grave. I mean it does have some great features but white or not the iPhone 4 has major design flaws. Design should never come before function and usability. Apple seems to have forgotten that.

    I mean the iPhone 4 held the number one spot in the top ten ranking on pc world. Once Apple gave that press conference they took it down with out explanation. However, http://getyourgadgetsgoing.com/ took a look into it. The results are rather interesting.