iPhone News Updated

White iPhone 4 pushes iPad 2 off Apple.com, backlogged on Verizon+AT&T

White iPhone 4 pushes iPad 2 off Apple.com, backlogged on Verizon+AT&T

There was a time when the white iPhone 4 didn’t officially exist, according to Apple.com. But as Michael Scott once said, how the turntables have… yeah, nevermind. The point is this: in a sign of just how much Apple is hoping you’ll allow the newly arrived white model to inspire you to take the plunge on the iPhone 4 at this late date in its lifecycle, the white iPhone 4 has seized control of Apple.com from top to bottom.

It’s taken the lead spot on the front page (without the black model alongside it), relegating the still-new iPad 2 to the bottom of the front page. The iPhone-specific section of Apple’s website at least acknowledges that the black iPhone 4 still exists, but the white model is again front and center. But good luck getting one without waiting for at least a bit, as online white iPhone 4 orders for both the Verizon and AT&T iteration are backlogged by three to five days.

And that says something interesting in and of itself.First, there’s enough demand for the white iPhone 4 that Apple can’t get them out the door quite fast enough. But on the other hand, the reasonable wait times mean that unlike with the iPad 2 which Apple barely bothered to manufacture any ahead of launch, there does appear to be a respectable amount of white iPhone 4 inventory to go around – just not quite enough to keep up with healthy demand.

Keep in mind that Apple may not yet have locked in the iPhone 5 launch date, instead planning to keep an eye on how the white iPhone 4 does as an indicator of just how long it can prolong the iPhone 4 era without sales going off a cliff.

It would appear that, at least for now, Apple has found a way to send iPhone 4 sales upward, not downward, despite May 2011 being the ninth month in which the iPhone 4 has been on the market. Not bad, considering the white iPhone 4 was initially held up due to manufacturing problems and its successful launch now is as much of a happy happenstance as a master plan.

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

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