Suppliers to Apple have begun production of white iPhones after a delay of almost 10 months, pointing to a launch date of within a month, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., flagship of Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, would assemble the iPhone, one of the people said. They declined to be named because the information was not public.
An Apple spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment, while calls to a Hon Hai spokesman went unanswered.
Apple Senior Vice-President of Marketing Phil Schiller first said in a Twitter post in March that the white iPhone would be available for sale by Spring, which ends in May in the northern hemisphere.
The white iPhone would be available from AT&T and Verizon Communications by the end of April, Bloomberg News reported on its website, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs first unveiled the white version of the smartphone when the iPhone 4 was launched in June last year, but it has been delayed because of a manufacturing issue that the company has not elaborated on.
Many telecommunications operators have been eager to sell the iPhone, hoping that the feature-jammed device will help boost data network use and increase revenue. For example, China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile operator, has been in talks with Apple for more than a year on distribution rights for the handset.
More than 16 million iPhones were sold in the last quarter of 2010, accounting for more than a third of Apple’s sales in those three months.
Just a hunch here…..but I bet these new white iPhones are going to be stolen at a higher rate than the current black ones. Why? Those who feel the need to have a white phone probably are more “iPhone histrionic” out in public than those who have a black phone (using it while walking down Michigan ave, look at me and my phone, probably talk louder on it than they did on their black phone, holding it out while on the bus or train platform, etc..). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for livening things up (why not pink iPhones, or red, or purple)? I’m sure the comment police will let me know if I’m off base.
So what?
I’d like to point out that “Spring” actually ends on June 21 in the northern hemisphere, not at the “end of May” as stated by the writer, having recently commenced on March 21. Thus, it’s more correct to assume that the white iPhone might be introduced by the end of June, and thus still be within the “Spring” time frame.
A phone that has been available for months is now going to come in white!!!! OH my! Now that’s news!
Oh, be still, my heart.
Null Hypothesis is correct – the status-conscious, attention-starved iPhone crowd will be wetting its collective pants in anticipation as the release date nears, and when they finally get their phones, they’ll go through all kinds of elaborate waving and preening rituals each time they get ready to use them – like Ed Norton preparing to swing a golf club.
An Iphone press release actually qualifies as headline news in the business section? Wow. Iphones come in white now? What next? Maybe red?
Ooooo…. a white phone!!!! Gimme, gimme, gimme. I just have to be the first one on my block to have one and I’ll take off from work all week so I can camp out in line if I have to!!!!
Honestly, this is what’s important in people lives today, the color of a PHONE? So sad.
the white phone probably will work better than the black phone so there will be a line out the door for this product!