Apple's white iPhone 4 finally goes on sale worldwide after 10 months of delays

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• Apple blames design challenges caused by white colour

On sale: Apple's white iPhone 4 has finally gone on sale, 10 months after its expected launch dateCrowds gathered outside Apple shops worldwide this morning to be among the first to get their hands on the new white iPhone 4.
The company was forced to delay the release of the albino model of their cult smartphone several times while engineers grappled with effects the colour of the device had on internal components.
The white iPhone had been set to go on the market in June 2010, the same date as the more familiar black version, but was delayed because, according to Apple, it was 'more challenging to manufacture that we originally expected.'
But after nearly 10-months of delays, rumours of mismatched paint and claims that the device would no longer see the light of day, they discovered that, like fair-skinned humans, white iPhones need more protection from UV light.
'It was challenging,' Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said during a joint interview with CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday.

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'Its not as simple as making something white. Theres a lot more that goes into both the material science of it how it holds up over time but also in how it all works with the sensors.'It is believed that manufacturing a white glass cover that didnt affect image quality of the camera sensor proved to be a lot more time consuming than engineers expected.However, the solutions they discovered have allowed them to start working on a white iPad 2.

Wait: Shoppers line up outside an Apple store in Shanghai to buy the newly released white iPhone. Apple's engineers blamed the colour's effects on internal components for the 10-month delay

Obsession: Hundreds queue for the chance to buy a white iPhone 4 on the first day of sale at the Sanlitun Apple Store in BeijingMobile networks Three, Vodafone and O2 have already announced plans to stock the device in the UK, on the same tariffs as its black counterpart.
But with stocks lower than expected O2 is only set to offer the handset through its shops, rather than online.Three are also offering it on Pay As You go - for a wallet-busting 499.99. In the U.S. the white iPhone is available on AT&T and Verizon.
However, with the iPhone 5 expected in June, it is not clear that Apple-fans will be rushing to buy the new albino model.
Apple watchers are now speculating that the next version's release could now be pushed back.

Arrived: But the expected release of the iPhone 5 in June may discourage some users from shelling out on the white model

Apple boss Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone 4 in San Francisco last June. The white version was delayed due to a manufacturing issueBut the iPhones now on the market are not the first to have hit the streets. Last November, a 17-year-old New Yorker discovered he could get white iPhone parts directly from Apple's factory in China.
Fei Lam, who speaks fluent Chinese, managed to make contact with Apples Chinese supplier, Foxconn.
Using his contacts in China, Lam ordered in legitimate white iPhone parts directly from the factory and then re-sold them as conversion kits for desperate Apple fans to upgrade their phones.
His website, whiteiphonefourn! ow.com, sold the white iPhone kits for $279 each, netting him more than $130,000. The site has since been taken down.
More than 16million iPhones were sold in the last quarter of 2010, accounting for more than a third of Apple's sales in those three months.