The real reason why we can't buy a white iPhone 4

I did read these days an article why we can't buy a white iPhone 4 and i actually believe it (see article under my thoughts). Apple (Steve Jobs) is not happy with the color. He wants to have a perfect looking iPhone. Supposedly the home button is manufactured in another factory than the other outside parts. And it seems that the two parts have a different white shade. We need to know that these are as well two different materials and it is always hard to get same color shade on different material especially with a clean color like white.

This is a repeating of a situation almost 15 years ago when Next did build their Next Cube computer. Steve Jobs did want to have this computer in a certain black color (same as the iPhone is today). It took him 8 months till he was satisfied with the color but it was easier to finalize the color because the computer outside was made from one material.




I can believe that iPhones in white got shipped to the US and as soon Steve did see that the button is slightly another color than the rest, that he decided not to sell the phone.
He is a perfectionist and I like it. For Apple many times quality goes before quantity. That is the reason I like the iPhone. It just works. Android phones are cool because you can choose from tons of different form factors, like screen size, with keyboard or not etc. The problem is that many apps don't work well on each device exactly for this reason. Apple has only one form factor, but therefor it is so much easier for a developer to build an app and gives it a much better user experience. As a developer i would prefer to give 30% of my revenue to Apple (google does not take any money) and can avoid to test and develop my app against 200 different devices. The time and money I save is much more than 30% of lost revenue.

Read the original article about the white iPhone issue:

White iPhone spotted in New York, owner explains why you haven't got one yet

15 October 2010 1:44 GMT / By Stuart Miles

So there we were, in a lift at a press event in New York City, when we spotted a white iPhone 4 strutting its stuff in the hands of a mystery man.

A bit of covert photography later, that would make even the ardent paparazzi proud, and we'd managed to snap some shots of it in action.

We felt proud, but then we realised that for you, that's just not enough. So we went and talked to the owner to see why and how he had a white iPhone 4, when the rest of the US and the world is still left waiting.

While our inside man didn't want to give his name, he did part with some very valuable information; information that we feel the urge to share.

It turns out that One Infinite Loop (that's Apple's HQ in Cupertino) is swimming with white iPhones, and that he had a mate that "fixed him up" with his.

Why then, have you not been able to queue outside the Apple store of your choice to get one?

Well, according to our jacket wearing gent, Apple is having trouble getting its two suppliers in the Far East to match the white used in the manufacturing of the parts. The white home button colour doesn't match the white front face plate colour, it turns out.

Apple being the perfectionist that it is, isn't happy with this and therefore isn't happy to sell it to the general public, supposedly.

So there you have it. If our man is to be believed, and he seemed genuine enough, the reason you haven't seen a white iPhone 4 at your local Apple store is down to the fact that white is not always white.


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