Iphone 4 supply discriminates against white users

FANS OF THE Iphone who like their shiny toys to be white will have to get to the back of Apple's bus.

While we have been reporting that there will be delays in delivering the Iphone 4 due to component shortages, it appears that the white design will be pushed even further down the production queue.

It is looking like white models of Apple's Iphone 4 won't be available until the second half of July in the US. Given that Apple is not even shipping the Iphone 4 in Blighty until the middle of next month, it could be ages before we see a white model of the gadget in the UK.

Apple said that a white version is more challenging to manufacture than expected. It did not say why exactly, just that it is tricky.

It could be that Apple is trying to avoid a repeat of previous complaints that its white products tended to go off-colour if they overheated. But it is more likely that with components in such short supply, Apple does not want to release another variant just yet.

While the black machines are no doubt the most popular, they also are more popular with blokes, while the white ones tend to end up in the paws of Apple fangirls.

Apple said last week it took advance orders for more than 600,000 new Iphones worldwide on the first day the device became available. The preorders were the most ever taken by the company in a single day and 10 times higher than for the Iphone 3GS last year. µ