• by Mark Walsh , April 14, 2011

What other company besides Apple could drum up so much consumer and media interest around the color of one of its products -- without advertising? News that Apple would begin selling a long-awaited white version of the iPhone 4 in the next few weeks rippled across the tech blogosphere and broader business press and news wires today, based on a Bloomberg report citing "three people with knowledge of the plans."

More than 266 other articles on the topic, citing the Bloomberg story or other sources, had been published by Thursday afternoon, according to the Google Reader feed. Make that 267. That outpouring of attention was based on a rumor about a phone color, not a new product or innovative feature.

Much of the fascination with the elusive white iPhone 4 has to do with its delayed arrival. Apple announced the white version would be pushed back when it released the black iPhone 4 last June, citing unspecified manufacturing challenges. Speculation about the problem ranged from difficulty creating the right shade of white for the iPhone 4's glass casing to an issue related to the smartphone's backlight.

The air of mystery and pent-up demand around the white iPhone 4 continued to build. Then last month, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, stoked the buzz machine with a tweet saying the white model would be on sale by spring. "And it is a beauty!" he added, making Apple's fan base crave it all the more. Credit Schiller with an infrequent but timely use of Twitter to keep excitement around the model humming -- a sighting of the albino iPhone!

A few more unofficial hints dropped today, and white iPhone fever quickly spread again across the media landscape. It's not as if Apple doesn't offer any white products. Going back to the iPod, white has become an iconic color for the company's wildly popular gadgets. The iPhone 3GS is out there in white if someone really wants a white Apple handset, as is the iPad 2.

That Apple held back the white iPhone 4 simply to spur demand for the device until the iPhone 5 may be a bit of a stretch. But the company has made the best of the situation to drive anticipation for a device that came out 10 months ago.