Perhaps having exhausted all the iPhone 5 rumors, it's back to the fabled white iPhone. Reuters reports that Apple suppliers have started production on white iPhones, which could be available within a month.
Apple has not yet made any annoucements; Reuters cited people familiar with the situation. Foxconn's Hon Hai Industry Co. would assemble the devices, the report said.
Chatter about the white iPhone got reignited last month after Apple released the white iPad 2, with no iPhone version in site. Phil Schiller, senior vice president for worldwide marketing at Apple, later tweeted that the white iPhone would be available soon.
"Hi Eric. The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!)," Schiller said in response to a follower's question about where he could get the white iPhone.
That wasn't exactly breaking news, given that Apple said in October that the white iPhone had been delayed until spring, but when an Apple exec tweets, it makes headlines. The white iPhone has actually been troubled since the start. When Apple announced the iPhone 4, it said the device would be available in black and white models. By the end of June, however, Apple issued a statement that said the white models "have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected." At the time, Apple promised to release them by the second half of July, but by the time July 23 rolled around, Apple said the white iPhone would not actually be available until the end of the year.
By October, Apple announced it was delayed until spring. People got riled up about the device again in December when some Apple Store placards that say the white smartphone would hit stores in spring 2011, but again, that was nothing new.
As PCMag audio analyst Tim Gideon wrote recently, one of the most widely believed, if completely unconfirmed, rumors about the white iPhone 4 is that the white back panel reflected too much light from the LED flash, resulting in overexposed images. The back of the white iPad 2, however, is brushed aluminum.
"So, if we ever do see a white iPhone, it will likely need a bit of an overhaul, with an aluminum back panel and only a white frame around the screen, a la the iPad 2," Gideon wrote.
Now the question is, will this be a white iPhone 4 or iPhone 5? There have been dueling rumors lately about whether Apple will unveil the next version of its iPhone at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June or wait until the fall. Stay tuned.