The fabled white iPhone 4 is coming soon. That's according to 9to5Mac, which reports that the long-awaited device has shown up in Verizon's inventory.
Based on listings in its internal inventory database, Verizon will launch both 16GB and 32GB versions of the white iPhone 4 "very soon" 9to5Mac says. The listing didn't explicitly say "white iPhone," although sources for 9to5Mac interpreted that the devices in question were the white iPhone based off of Verizon's numbering system.
9to5Mac predicts that the device will be available later this month. However, if that rumor proves true, it won't be groundbreaking news, considering Apple has said it would release the white iPhone 4 this spring. The white iPhone has been rumored for a long time, but chatter started up again last month when Apple released a white version of the iPad 2, with no iPhone counterpart.
Apple's senior vice president for worldwide marketing Phil Schiller later tweeted that the white iPhone was on the horizon.
"The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!)," he said in response to a follower's question about when the device would go on sale.
Schiller's statement is a confirmation of what Apple said in October: that the white iPhone would make its debut this spring.
Apple has had trouble getting the white iPhone off the ground. When the company originally announced the iPhone 4, it said the phone would be available in both black and white. However, by the end of June, Apple issued a statement that said white models have "proven more challenging to manufacture than expected." It promised to release them by the end of July, but on July 23, Apple conceded that the white iPhone would not be available until the end of the year.
Then in October, Apple said the phone was delayed yet again. Apple has yet to make an official announcement of the white iPhone and reps from the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, so whether the rumors are actually true this time remains to be seen.