Apple Removes White iPhone 4 from its Database

Last night the Apple online store went down for some maintenance, and when it came back up, the white iPhone 4 that the company has been promising since last June had vanished. The device’s SKU was removed from Apple’s database, and images on Apple’s website that previously showed the white device had been changed to show a black one instead.

Apple has been experiencing issues with manufacturing the device that has delayed – and possibly cancelled – its launch. Speculation has put the delays down to problems with the white paint, light leakage and even camera issues, but the Cupertino company is yet to give an official reason as to why the white iPhone 4 still hasn’t launched.

The removal of the white handset’s SKU from Apple’s database doesn’t necessarily mean that the company has ruled the device out altogether – it could be updating its system with a new SKU – but the eradication of the white iPhone 4 images on Apple’s website doesn’t look too promising.

Apple’s senior vice president Phil Schiller announced in a message on Twitter in mid-March that the white device would be available this spring. However, it seems Schiller may have been a tad too optimistic.

I personally believe that the white iPhone 4 will be the device that we never had the pleasure of meeting. I believe Apple has removed all evidence of the device from its website as a subtle sign to inform would-be white iPhone 4 owners that it has given up on trying to deliver the device, and that they too should give up and purchase the black device instead.

Of course, it could be a sign that there will be an iPhone 5 this summer after all. If Apple was to release the white iPhone 4 this spring and announce a fifth generation device just months later, there’s going to be a large number of unhappy customers with a device just months old that’s already a last-generation iPhone. To prevent this upset, Apple may have decided its best to just rule out the device and hope that people forget it ever existed when the new device is announced in June.

[via Cult of Mac]

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