Apple to begin production of white iPhone 4 this month, ship by April, says analyst

Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2020
Apple is expected to begin production of its long-awaited iPhone 4 sometime this month, with shipments no later than early April, according to one analyst's checks.

Manufacturers will initiate production of the GSM-based iPhone 4 version in white enclosures and begin dispatching them to Apple ahead of general availability planned for next month, Concord Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told AppleInsider. Apple has made changes the "film material to solve the full-lamination problem that [was] the reason why white iPhones [were] delayed," he added. The handset was first scheduled to debut last June. Kuo did not provide a timeframe for a white CDMA-based iPhone.

With the introduction of the CDMA iPhone, iOS 4.3 set to become available this week and an anticipated launch of the white iPhone 4, Kuo sees Apple selling a record 18 million iPhones in the first quarter of calendar 2010. That would easily best the 16.2 million phones Apple sold in the holiday sales period to end 2010.

More evidence that Apple has solved its white paint mixture woes came last week with the unveiling of the iPad 2. The new touchscreen tablet will come in both black and white, and Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said both models will ship on the March 11 launch date -- a statement that drew laughter from the audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

AppleInsider reported in January that Apple had made strides in developing a new material that would allow it to successfully manufacture a white iPhone 4 that meets the company's high level of standards. Using earlier painting methods, Apple's attempts to manufacture the white iPhone 4 apparently resulted in a "huge" number of defective handsets.

Unable to produce the white iPhone 4 in 2010, Apple allegedly partnered with a Japanese company that crafted a new paint material. The new material apparently allows for greater control and precision in setting the thickness of the paint layer.

White iPhone 4


Apple was forced to delay the white iPhone 4 numerous times in 2010 citing manufacturing issues. The most recent delay was announced by Apple in October, when the company said the device would not go on sale until spring, or about 9 months after the iPhone 4 first went on sale.

Some impatient iPhone 4 owners have been able to purchase unauthorized white iPhone 4 models custom-built using leaked parts from Apple's overseas suppliers. Among those with a white model is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who said in January that the official model would ship "soon." He also said that the camera flash was problematic with his custom-built model.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member




    But WHY?!
  • Reply 2 of 28
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    More evidence that Apple has solved its white paint mixture woes came last week with the unveiling of the iPad 2. The new touchscreen tablet will come in both black and white,



    hmm...iPad back is aluminium. Hello?
  • Reply 3 of 28
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    But WHY?!



    Because that's what some customers want.



    "Give the customers what they want."



    Since the manufacturing costs should be virtually identical to the black iPhone, this is a win-win situation for Apple, its customers, and its shareholders. The only people it negatively affects is the competition.
  • Reply 4 of 28
    ghostface147ghostface147 Posts: 1,629member
    A little too late?
  • Reply 5 of 28
    Analysts never got it right. A random guy on the street may know better than they do.
  • Reply 6 of 28
    guch20guch20 Posts: 173member
    Please release the white iPhone 4 a month before the iPhone 4GS comes out.
  • Reply 7 of 28
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Because that's what some customers want.



    "Give the customers what they want."



    Since the manufacturing costs should be virtually identical to the black iPhone, this is a win-win situation for Apple, its customers, and its shareholders. The only people it negatively affects is the competition.



    Bollocks. All the talk about the white iPhone is just to keep Apple in the news. There never was one planned, and there never were any production issues.



    I'll admit I'm wrong when Apple start selling the white iPhone 4.
  • Reply 8 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    But WHY?!



    What is is about iPhone sales that you just can’t wrap your head around. Do you not see the increased sales in quarters AFTER *gasp* the product refreshes.











    Now lets consider that they still can’t make as many as the black iPhones so this will help get production kinks worked out before they get a surge in sales from the new model arriving and even more white iPhones will have to be made. OMG logic and economics!
  • Reply 9 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by guch20 View Post


    Please release the white iPhone 4 a month before the iPhone 4GS comes out.



    You really think the next iPhone will come out in early April despite no event for it and no iOS 5.0 demo of new features and developer Betas to shore up issues with the code? Good luck with that.
  • Reply 10 of 28
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Because that's what some customers want.



    "Give the customers what they want."



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steve Jobs


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Henry Ford


    If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said, "A faster horse."





    But that makes no sense given the last decade at Apple.
  • Reply 11 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post


    hmm...iPad back is aluminium. Hello?



    There is a camera on the front (in case you forgot).
  • Reply 12 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    There is a camera on the front (in case you forgot).



    I think the problem was with the flash, not the camera itself. Does the VGA camera on the front of the iPad have a flash?
  • Reply 13 of 28
    dagamer34dagamer34 Posts: 494member
    At this point, does it really matter? I mean, are there people that were really waiting for the white iPhone 4 this long just to purchase it now?



    If anything, Apple might as well wait until the iPhone 5, as it's been 9-10 months since WWDC 2010.
  • Reply 14 of 28
    I don't see the need for this, but stranger things have happened, so...

    Tell you ONE thing, though--I'm now inclined to believe that there's no validity to the whole bigger screen talk that surfaced not too long ago. Not with them putting forth the effort to concentrate on LAST years model.
  • Reply 15 of 28
    cgc0202cgc0202 Posts: 624member
    Not sure about the logic here, except perhaps to save face that it finally delivered, a promise product. But, if Apple is on schedule, the next iPhone iteration is on the way (June/July?) and that is a few months from now.



    At least the Verizon iPhone was released early this year, so there is enough time before a new version is coming. I would not be surprised if many Verizon customers, who have been waiting for their iPhone for years delayed purchasing the iPhone4 because of impending release of the next iPhone. What is 6 months, after waiting almost four years.



    But, some, if not many may have opted to stay with AT&T, after migrating from Verizon, because the service was not as bad where they lived, and were lured by the last minute attempts of AT&T.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post






    But WHY?!





    Good one. But then again, some may just like their iPhone white. A friend of mine kept her pink iMac even if she has another computer now and does most of her stuff on her iPhone4 (trade in from the previous). She just loves pink and color-coordinated all the accessories.



    CGC
  • Reply 16 of 28
    Strongly implies that the next iPhone will be a spec bump and not a redesign.
  • Reply 17 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MyopicPaideia View Post


    Strongly implies that the next iPhone will be a spec bump and not a redesign.



    Are you saying that upping the specs in these phones means they just drop in better components without altering the internal design? That?s simply not the case. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS kept the same case but it was a huge jump in design in pretty much every way. Even the display was different even though it retained the same resolution. The original iPhone and iPhone 3G have a lot more in common with each other despite the addition of a new case, 3G and GPS than the iPhone 3G and 3GS have with other.
  • Reply 18 of 28
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    But that makes no sense given the last decade at Apple.



    Well, whatever Apple has been offering, people seem to be buying it up.



    Exhibit A: AAPL share price of $10.40 for 8 March 2001 (split adjusted)

    Exhibit B: AAPL share price of $355.76 for yesterday 8 March 2011
  • Reply 19 of 28
    ipedroipedro Posts: 63member
    Considering Apple went to incredible lengths to fix this issue, I think it's safe to assume that the glass iPhone design is going to stay around for a while. Rumors of a metal back iPhone 5 aren't plausible after seeing this.



    I believe the next iPhone will be more of an intermediate step with an A5 chip, 64GB storage and perhaps a Thunderbolt port or controller via the dock connector for faster syncing.
  • Reply 20 of 28
    cgc0202cgc0202 Posts: 624member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MyopicPaideia View Post


    Strongly implies that the next iPhone will be a spec bump and not a redesign.



    Not too sure that it follows. We have a few months to wait. One thing is sure, Apple/Steve Jobs confounds predictions and their pundits.



    CGC
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