A White iPhone 4 Is Confronted Regarding Its Inability to Be Shipped | Hacker News Reader

A White iPhone 4 Is Confronted Regarding Its Inability to Be Shipped

daringfireball.net

160 pointsghiculescu36 comments

I think Apple are avoiding shipping a white iPhone so they don't fragment the iPhone market like Android is ;)

Thank god. Fragmented phones are so hard to dial on, what with the keys all going off into different directions.

From what I've heard it's because the buttons and the case are made by different companies and they can't get the colours to match. http://www.reghardware.com/2010/10/15/white_iphone_spied/

I've heard that too, but it's just hard to believe that a company that can pack so much stuff in such small spaces (be it iOS devices or MacBook Air's) and is praised for its industrial design and great hardware engineering, can't figure out suppliers to have matching colors for a button.

(note: I'm not saying that's not the case, it's just surprising)

That's just hearsay. It's pretty hard to believe in the days of Pantone that two high-scale vendors cannot match colors.

There were also rumors that it had something to do with light and the camera (iow, white doesnt absorb light as well). Who knows?

Although I use their gear, I'm not known to say a lot of nice things about Apple, but I think this "fiasco" isn't. I applaud them for their apparent eye for QA in the matter.

These sorts of QA blunders are virtually routine for competitors like HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.

It sounds like Jobs announced the white iPhone 4 a bit too prematurely. Lesson learned, let's ditch the White i4 and move onto the next thing.

This is such a legendary article. I love John's creativity.

Whatever you think of Gruber, his "anthropomorphized" articles are good for a laugh.

The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme: http://daringfireball.net/2005/09/anthropomorphized

iLife ’06 From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal Interface: http://daringfireball.net/2006/01/brushed_metal

An Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal Interface Theme Shows Up for the WWDC Preview Build of Mac OS X Leopard: http://daringfireball.net/2007/06/brushed_metal_leopard

Wow, it's been years. These have always been, in my opinion, Gruber's greatest strength, even beyond readably plainspoken Apple analysis and a certain kindredness to Steve Jobs' perfectionist spirit. It's obvious how much he enjoys writing these; I have to wonder why he doesn't do them more often.

One word: "schtick". The way he does it now, it actually means something; "white iPhone debacle" is a big enough deal to warrant an anthropomorphized article!

I'm a big fan of his "Translation from PR-Speak to English" articles. I wish he'd translate everything Ballmer says so I could understand what Microsoft is actually doing.

http://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:daringfireball.net+translation...

The problem is that Ballmer, like Yang, doesn't actually know what he's trying to say.

I'm a fan when Gruber makes comments over 8 words. Not so sure when he hits 1000.

Does he actually write things in between the two? I hadn't noticed.

Could they be deliberately holding back the white iPhone because there's nothing else due for 2011? Seems they could afford to skip an iteration and keep the same model for a while longer - it's now got most of the features that people thought were 'lacking' in earlier iPhones. I remember Nintendo or Sony shifting a ridiculous number of units just by releasing a white DS or PSP, a big release that was purely cosmetic.

Announcing a new color would be on thing, but deliberately holding back a product that was supposed to be available months ago sounds like a horrible idea to me and I don't think anyone would fall for it.

If Steve Jobs was selling it, I do think people would fall for it.

I'm neutral on getting a white iPhone but I would love to see an iPhone model that:

* had a Back button in Mobile Safari that consistently redisplayed a cached version of the previous web page, by default. use a portion of the flash space if needed for this cache

* had a way to temporarily disable device auto-rotate -- the bane of users who are moving or fidgeting or laying down

* Photo collection synching -- why is the only way I can get them off by selecting up to 4 at a time and emailing them to myself? They're just files. Copy them to your host desktop just like all those other files they've been synching for years.

...the color white? purty, but, not a substantive improvement like the above would be.

I used to jailbreak my iPhone solely to get a rotation lock — now in iOS 4 you can double-tap the home button to bring up the task list, swipe from left to right, and lock the current orientation with the button on the left.

thanks for tip. i've just tried it and it seems to only lock it into Portrait mode, regardless of which mode you really want. So you can't lock into Landscape orientation, for example. Frustrating. Baby step progress, at least.

I'm not sure about other markets but in Canada I've been trying to get an iphone 4 since launch. I've been put on a waiting list that they say is 6+ months long. I hope Apple responds to its existing demand before trying to introduce new variations.

That's crazy, it's down to two weeks in Australia.

I just got my 4 after waiting since launch. Some parts of Australia are still backlogged.

You can pick it up in a store in Denmark. No waiting lists anywhere.

Yeah, same here (also in Canada). Been trying to get an iPhone 4 at Rogers since they came out and still didn't manage to get one!

To be fair though, couple of my friends got one by either waiting in line at the Apple store or calling Rogers retention etc... but I really don't care enough to jump through hoops to get one so I'm still waiting!

yah its at fido. I go check every week. They have signs at every store saying "no iphone 4s" and if you call their answering service says "we do not have any iphone 4's.... <menu>"

Check with the Apple store (if there's one near you; I'm in Toronto so I have three close-ish to where I live). I got mine (on Fido dollars) about four weeks ago by calling the Apple store at Sherway Gardens on a Friday and finding out they MIGHT have a shipment on Saturday (they did).

Phone up Fido and speak talk about cancelling so you get transferred to their retentions department. Rogers and Fido have been known to sell iPhone 4s through that department to customers that threaten to leave.

I know a lot of people who had no trouble picking up an iPhone 4.

My advice is to threaten to switch carriers. They'll take care of you nice and quick.

Wow, on my last visit to the UK I just walked into an Apple store and bought an unlocked one there and then for a friend. They had stacks of them in stock. (they were selling one every 2 minutes or so though) The website says 1 week:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...

Actually, the Canadian website says 2 weeks:

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...

So whoever you're trying to buy one from - they're messing you around.

That's the waiting time for an unlocked phone though. You can't order subsidized phones direct from Apple in Canada. You have to visit an Apple Retail Store or a store that carries phones from your carrier of choice.

If you're in a contract with a carrier, I'd suggest phoning them up and asking to speak with their retentions department. Talk to them about how you're thinking about leaving if you can't get an iPhone 4 soon. Most of the big carriers -- Rogers, Telus, Bell, and even Fido -- have taken orders through their retentions department. It really seems to depend on the day though, whether or not they can sell any. But it's worth a shot!

I got mine a week ago by calling the Apple Store at Eaton's Centre in Toronto on a Thursday evening; they told me they would have stock the next day. I got there at 6:50 am and was out of the store with a phone at 9:50 after a somewhat problematic activation with Fido.

Jacob confronted by the Man in Black

Dude. Lost is so 2010.

man, I really had no idea how unpopular that comment was going to be! Last time I mention that show ever again.

The problem is that it's completely off-topic, and, to people unfamiliar with the show, makes absolutely no sense.

I shall re-work my previous comment then... that's the last time I mention something off topic and vague here again. I shall save my nonsense for other forums.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com