The snipe hunt for white iPhone 4s to continue indefinitely

The white iPhone 4 will continue to be as elusive as a snipe, for quite some time, it appears. While earlier Apple said that it would ship white devices in late July, it now has no set timeframe for those shipments.

Apple's Friday press release says the following:

White models of Apple's new iPhone® 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

It's hard to say how Apple knows that black models are more popular if white ones are not available for purchase.

It's believed that the issue with the white model has to do with getting the aluminosilicate glass housing used in Apple's latest iPhone to be, well, white. It is not believed that Steve Jobs is channeling Henry Ford with regards to black-only products.