Apple has always been a company that stresses the details. Everything down to the tiniest pixel is highly scrutinized to perfection. That’s why it doesn’t come as a total surprise that Apple is going after developers for using the wrong type of iPhone mockup to promote third-party apps on the web.
Cupertino doesn’t like the idea of developers using white iPhones to show off their work in marketing materials. It’s a black iPhone or the highway.
Apple has finally bought the two domain names “iPhone4.com” and “WhiteiPhone.com.” It’s difficult to keep track of all the domains Apple actually owns (remember iCloud?), but it seems as though the company has finally ponied up the cash for two already-released products.
We’re not really sure why Apple is just now acquiring a domain for the iPhone 4 and white iPhone, but hey, it’s never too late.
Yesterday, we reported that Apple had taken the unusual step of both suing and filing-to-dismiss its own lawsuit against the Fei Lam, the teenager who sold Steve Wozniak along with hundreds of others their own white iPhone 4 conversion kits.
That was weird enough. Even weirder? This is the first Fei Lam himself has heard about the case being settled.
White iPhone this! White iPhone that!
Who’s sick of it already?
[polldaddy poll=4975121]
Nine months in, Apple still hasn’t managed to ship the elusive white iPhone 4. A problem with the painting process on the white glass plate causes light to leak onto the camera sensor, washing out images. At this point, you’d think Apple would just give up and move on, but the white iPhone 5 is the Moby Dick to Steve Jobs’ cantankerous, turtlenecked Ahab. We’re in the realm of obsession here.
None the less, a brief note over at Digitimes says that Apple is already looking towards the future of pastiness, and have just signed Wintek to be the sole touch panel supply for all white iPhone 5s.
I suppose the comfort in all this is that, given what a debacle the white iPhone 4 has been, you can bet on the fact that Apple will have the white iPhone 5 perfected as a point of pride at launch.
I have a bet for my pinky finger with a certain man from the south that Apple will never release the white iPhone 4.
What’s the point? After long delays caused by light leaking onto the camera sensor, the white iPhone 4 has been delayed nearly nine months… and the next-gen iPhone is, at best, due out a mere three months after the white iPhone 4 is set to debut. At that point, anyone who wants one is going to just wait for a white iPhone 5.
I’d always assumed Apple was just hoping that delaying it until spring of 2011 would just get everyone to forget about the white iPhone 4, but their latest official signage at Apple Stores around the country reminds people that the albino iPhone 4 is still coming.
Crap. Maybe I’m about to lose that pinky bet after all.
Thanks to an issue with light leaking onto the camera sensor, Apple has delayed the white iPhone 4 until at least March of next year… a nine month delay which probably harbingers the cancellation of that device.
It’s a delay that has bitten some customers harder than others: in fact, some customers have been so desperate to have a white iPhone 4 that they have converted them to white themselves as an aftermarket mod.
Don’t even think about buying or selling an iPhone 4 modded to white on eBay, though: Apple’s coming down hard on “fake” and “counterfeit” white iPhone 4s, banning them from sale on the world’s most popular online auctioning site.
The screenshot above was just taken from the iPhone page of the Apple Online Store. Notice something missing? The elusive white iPhone that Apple keeps promising us has now been removed, fuelling rumors that the device has been canceled entirely.
The white iPhone was delayed for the third time earlier this week, with its released date being pushed back until next spring. The exact reason we’re yet to get our hands on the white device is still yet to be confirmed from Cupertino, with the company simply explaining it’s “more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected.”
Several reasons have been speculated, however, including a color mismatch between the device’s glass and home button, light leakage out of the iPhone, and – as Cult of Mac discovered – light leakage in to the device that causes problems when taking pictures.
So, has the time come for Apple to finally throw in the towel and admit that its white iPhone 4 will never hit the shelves? Are there even customers still waiting for the device, or have they just given up and just purchased its black counterpart?
We’d be interested to know if you’ve been holding out for the white iPhone 4, and how you’d feel about Apple cancelling the device – let us know it the comments!
[via Touch Reviews]
