Apple fans with an Ahab-esque obsession with the Great White iPhone may finally have reason to shout, “Thar she blows!” Images of a purported white iPhone 4 wrapped in retail packaging were posted by Engadget Friday and later in the day 9 to 5 Mac quoted sources who said the product would begin selling in The Netherlands next Wednesday.
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Rumors of a white version of the Apple iPhone have become something of a cottage industry for tech publications. Apple originally planned to make both a black and white iPhone 4 available when it launched the fourth-generation smartphone last year.
But the company wound up delaying the white version of the iPhone 4, saying in a June statement that it had “proven more challenging to manufacture than expected.” Apple promised to release a white iPhone 4 by the end of July, but on July 23, Apple conceded that the white iPhone would not be available until the end of the year.
Some10 months after the black iPhone 4 was released, Apple may finally be ready to start selling the white version.
The Engadget images were reportedly sent in by a British Vodafone UK customer who was accidently shown an in-stock 16GB white iPhone 4—the salesperson actually rang it up as a black iPhone, according to Engadget’s source—long enough to snap some pictures before the sale was halted and any more such sales were postponed “until next week.”
Engadget compared the model number shown in the pictures to an in-house UK iPhone 4 and came away convinced the white phone in the shots was the real deal.
Meanwhile, 9 to 5 Mac received word from its own tipster that Dutch retailer BelCompany would begin selling 16GB iPhone 4s next Wednesday. An unconfirmed BelCompany memo further stated that “a limited number of retail stores will receive a single 32GB white iPhone.”
Dutch shoppers had better get up early Wednesday morning, however—the memo goes on to say that when the first batch of white iPhones runs out, it will take four to five weeks to get any more.
AT&T and Verizon have apparently been more circumspect than their European counterparts. If the two U.S.-based Apple partners have any white iPhones ready to start selling, they’ve been mum about it.
