Apple's White iPhone 4 Is Coming -- Only a Year Late

At long last, Apple is rolling out a white iPhone 4. The white model of the popular device will make its way to market on Thursday via Apple's online store, retail stores, carrier stores, and other authorized retailers.

"The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it's beautiful," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we've worked to get every detail right."

A Year Later ...

Waiting patiently may be an understatement. It took Apple nearly a year to roll out the white iPhone 4. Apple encountered problem after problem producing the white iPhone. Although AT&T was supposed to get an exclusive on the white iPhone, Verizon Wireless customers can also buy the device. The white iPhone 4 may be a way to hold off consumers waiting for the iPhone 5, which news reports suggest is delayed until the fall.

"Another unicorn dies as the white iPhone 4 finally makes an appearance," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. "What I find fascinating about this is that it's a white iPhone and its introduction is garnering this much attention. Once again it shows that pretty much anything Apple does is going to be put under a microscope, analyzed and reported on."

White models of the iPhone 4 will be available in more than 20 countries this week. Meanwhile, Apple is expanding the audience for its iPad 2. The second generation of the tablet will begin selling in Japan on Thursday and in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight additional countries on Friday.

Music Service Rumored

Everything Apple does -- or is even rumored to do -- is indeed headline material for technology magazines and even mainstream news outlets. And there are plenty of Apple rumors this week alone. One of those rumors is T-Mobile's quest for its own iPhone.

It remains to be seen if T-Mobile will get its iPhone 4 before Apple rolls out an iPhone 5, but some observers are suggesting it may soon begin offering a white model. And a Photoshopped image of the iPhone 5 leaked earlier this week still has people talking. The image is based on a sketch former Engaged chief Joshua Topolsky saw and posted on his blog.

The image circulating the web offers a teardrop design that's thicker at the top than the bottom. The screen is a tad larger at 3.7 inches. Some observers are betting Apple is going to take a page from its MacBook laser-manufacturing machinations and carve the device out of aluminum.

Beyond mobile devices, Apple is rumored to be readying a fee-based music service for the cloud . The rumor mill says Apple will initially roll out the service for free, but eventually charge $20 a year to let consumers do what Amazon.com launched at the end of March. Amazon launched Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android. But iPhone users were left without a solution.
 

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