White iPhone 4 To Experience Further Delays

If you were hoping to unwrap the colorless cousin of Apple’s wildly successful iPhone 4 sometime this holiday season, it would seem that you’re out of luck. Reuters reported Tuesday that the white version of the iPhone 4 has been hit with delays yet again. When Apple last addressed the issue, the availability of the phone was pushed from July until “the end of the year.” Now, the company expects the phone to be available in 2011, assigning the fuzzy release date of “early next year.”

There are rumors abound speculating as to the phone’s continued delays. Initially, color quality and consistency in the manufacturing process seemingly impeded the phone’s availability. More recently however, theories surrounding camera performance have surfaced. Apparently–due to a flaw in the overall case design–the rear facing camera is having issues with light leaks, effectively ruining one of the phone’s most acclaimed features. Throughout all of this, Apple has remained largely reserved on the issue. Slyly bumping the phone’s availability back in the Apple Store, the company has not officially acknowledged any problems beyond a June 23rd press release which cited “manufacturing challenges.”

Most recently, reports have emerged that Apple may not even intend to release a white iPhone 4 at all. With an annual update cycle, and substantial changes to the platform rumored for early 2011, releasing a “new” model of the iPhone 4 this late in the game may not be first on the agenda for the company. Will we in fact see a white iPhone 4 in 2011? I’d say that the odds are shrouded in as much mystery as the phone itself.

UPDATE: 10/28/10 – Apple today removed the white iPhone 4 from the Apple Online Store. The elusive phone still appears on the general iPhone 4 product page, but all mention–including the availability status–has vanished from the online store entirely. Is this the beginning of the end?