Where, oh where is the white iPhone 4?
What a bummer of a day! From not knowing exactly when on June 15th the new iPhone 4 preorders would begin, to practically breaking the virtual refresh button in Safari on my iPad, everything came to a screeching halt with the sight of this one sentence: "White iPhone currently unavailable for pre-order or in-store pickup." For the first time in the iPhone's brief run, the chances of many users having the latest and greatest on launch day, or even during that month, is in peril.
Without any explanation, Apple opened the floodgates for everyone to frantically get in their orders around 4 AM EST, as long as black was the preferred choice. No dates have been given as to when the white model may be available, so those of us who really wanted the unique color can either hold out until later in the summer, or give in and order a black one, assuming Apple has gotten control of the chaos from earlier today.
There are a number of theories floating around as to why the white version is not yet ready, some that make sense and some that sound like unbelievable conspiracies. Could there be manufacturing issues with the white parts? Is Apple trying to force more orders for the black iPhone? Maybe they're staggering the launch intentionally so they can keep up with demand, or create a false "hot" market for the lighter shade? Those are just a few of the possibilities, but another one that actually sounds plausible is the "Gizmodo effect," meaning the white color was added late in the manufacturing stage in order to give Apple something to surprise us with at WWDC last week.
Who knows what the real reason is, but all I know is that this is one of the few times in my gadget purchasing history that I'll remain patient and wait for what I want, the white 32GB iPhone 4. It should be easy with an HTC EVO 4G, Nexus One, Samsung Intrepid, and iPhone 3GS within inches of my hands. Who else is standing pat, or has everyone already caved in to the black version?
