Is the White iPhone 4 Vaporware?

The prospects of ever seeing a white iPhone 4 on store shelves are getting dimmer by the minute as new rumors suggest Apple has ditched plans for the snowy handset. One new theory is that Apple is just going to string along white iPhone 4 fans until it’s time for iPhone 5 and then drop the Wonder Bread version altogether. Adding to the iPhone snowstorm is the suggestion that Apple recently pulled the white iPhone 4 option from its online retail store. It’s hard to know for sure whether the Albinophone has gone the way of the dodo, but here’s what the Web is saying.

Down the white rabbit hole

Apple’s cabal has a dastardly plan in mind for white iPhone 4 fans, according to an anonymous source who spoke to Boy Genius Report. Instead of being upfront with users and saying the device has been shelved, Apple is supposedly going to make another announcement in March that the white iPhone 4 has been delayed yet again. A few months later, BGR’s source posits, it will be time for the iPhone 5 launch during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Then, before you can say “presto change-o,” Apple’s reality distortion field will vaporize the white iPhone 4 as gadget hounds become obsessed with the fifth iteration of Apple’s smartphone.

In case that wasn’t enough of a conspiracy for you, BGR says sources in Apple’s supply chain won’t confirm the white iPhone 4 problems are because of a manufacturing issue. Leading the gadget blog to posit that there’s “something else going on behind the scenes.”

Missing from Apple Store: White iPhone 4

Several blogs have noted that Apple’s online store is no longer flaunting the white iPhone 4. The device used to sit in the Web store with a tag that read “unavailable for order or in-store pickup.” Instead, the Albinophone has disappeared altogether, leaving the black version of the iPhone as the only choice.

Some people say Apple made the move sometime Wednesday, but that’s unlikely, according to Google’s cached version of the page. The white iPhone 4 has been missing from Apple’s online store since at least 10:38 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday.

Google’s most recent cache happened about three hours after Reuters reported the white iPhone 4 was delayed until 2011, and well before rumors started circulating about the snow phone’s permanent demise. The bottom line is that for all we know the white iPhone 4 has been missing from Apple’s online retail store for months.

Faint Hope

If the white iPhone 4 really is doomed, it might be a good idea to look into other methods to get a white iPhone 4. One way is to become a famous British comedian with a penchant for Apple gizmos like Stephen Fry, who was recently spotted with a white iPhone 4 during the T3 Gadget Awards 2010. Another option is to know someone at Apple, like the random stranger Pocket Lint ran into in New York City. If either of those strategies are beyond you, there’s always the DIY version.

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