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Verizon iPhone 5 glass body style portended by white iPad 2 design

Verizon iPhone 5 glass body style portended by white iPad 2 design

There’s never been a white Verizon iPhone, and the world has been without a white iPhone of any kind since the days of the 3GS. But hopes for white iPhone 5, for Verizon and otherwise, were rekindled this week when Apple introduced an iPad 2 which, for the first time, comes in a choice of black or white.

So how did Apple manage to pull off a white iPad 2 when manufacturing issues prevented a white iPhone 4 from ever coming to market? That’s simple, actually: the iPad 2 matches up with earlier iPhones in that only the front face is white, and it’s acrylic at that. Contrast that with the iPhone 4, which is instead constructed of bulletproof glass on both the front and back. It’s never been clear whether the failings of the white iPhone 4 were due to the glass material or the need to make it look correct on both the front and back. But one of the two is the reason why there never was a white iPhone 4 despite Apple having no trouble producing an iPhone 3G or 3GS, or even an iPad 2 with a white acrylic front. And this portends some interesting hints when it comes to the nature of the iPhone 5.

So long as Apple continues offering any white mobile products, it’s just begging consumers to keep asking why there’s currently no white iPhone. So the mere existence of a white iPad 2 means that Apple more than likely intends to revisit the concept of a white iPhone at some point, probably with the launch of the iPhone 5. But that leaves two possibilities. One is that Apple has in fact solved the issue of white front-and-back glass on the iPhone but decided it was too late to bother with the iPhone 4 and is merely waiting for the next generation. The other is that the iPhone 5 will completely abandon the all-glass body with the next generation, in favor of whatever suits Apple’s fancy next.

Either scenario is plausible. Some have questioned why, if a white iPhone 4 is in fact doable, Apple didn’t bother to bring it out alongside the Verizon iPhone 4 launch (for both carriers) in order to inject added life into the aging iPhone 4 era. But doing so could have offended those early adopters who wanted white but dove into the iPhone 4 era with the black model anyway, and wouldn’t now be able to migrate to the white iPhone 4 for upgrade pricing reasons. So Apple could be planning to use the same material for the iPhone 5, if not necessarily the exact same styling, and is merely waiting to give the white iPhone concept a fresh start at the right time. But with Apple brashly launching a white iPad 2 at a time when the term “white iPhone” has become an embarrassing punchline for the company, it implies that Apple fully expects to be able to put the lack of a white iPhone behind it, and soon – which means the iPhone 5. The question is what that’ll look like when it arrives.

[Thanks: http://www.beatweek.com]

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