Apple to finally deliver white iPhone 4 Thursday

Apple will start selling the long-delayed white iPhone 4 on Thursday, the company said today.

The new iPhone 4 will be available in the U.S. and 27 other countries, including Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the U.K., at prices of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB smartphone with a two-year service contract.

"The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it's beautiful," said Philip Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, in a statement today. "We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we've worked to get every detail right."

Apple originally announced the first-ever white iPhone last June, when it launched the iPhone 4. Within days, however, it acknowledged "challenging" manufacturing issues and said it would be delayed until late July. It later revised that to the end of 2010.
Since then, the white iPhone has become an almost mythical device, with its imminent release repeatedly foretold.

Today, White estimated that the white iPhone 4 will boost sales of Apple's smartphone by 1 to 1.5 million units per quarter, at least until the next-generation iPhone appears.