White IPhone Delay Has Critics Questioning Black Availability

Online, June 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - In a brief statement issued today, Apple announced that the white version of the IPhone 4 will be delayed until late July.

"White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result they will not be available until the second half of July," Apple said. "The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected."

While some attribute this delay to the cosmetic manufacturing issues with the white IPhone 4, others have questioned Apple's general manufacturing prowess with the IPhone and IPad. Both AT&T and Apple were overwhelmed by the pre-orders for the new iPhone 4, saying that they had processed more than 600,000 orders on the very first day of pre-ordering, June 15.

IPads have been in limited supply since their release and changes to the IPhone's radio frequencies and antenna design make some wonder if Apple has an "IPhone" manufacturing problem on its hands.

"It's one thing to produce a million copies of one older model, but adding cameras, changing radios, and altering the antenna design isn't always as easy as it appears," said a source familiar with Asian cellphone manufacturing.

"You can build a thousand of anything, but to tuning a manufacturing line to get consistently high yields with really high volume is quite another. It takes time and a lot of technical expertise."

Since the initial builds of the IPhone 4 were probably black models, only time will tell if Apple has a manufacturing issue with white IPhone 4s or all IPhone 4s.