If you need a white iPhone 4 now, head to a store

The mythical white iPhone 4 has finally landed on store shelves, as Apple promised yesterday. This time it’s for real and long lines in Hong Kong serve as an indication that Apple may have another hit on their hands, even if they only changed the color from black to white. Having waited ten months for Apple to finally produce the elegant device, it’s understandable people don’t want to wait another day.

If you’re in the market for a white iPhone, better head to the nearest Apple store right away because online orders are estimated to ship in 3-5 business days. Ouch. Looks like all stock of white iPhones is being sent to own retail stores, carriers and third-party retailers like Walmart and Best Buy. Makes sense to avoid repeating the iPad 2 launch woes when a lot of disappointed customers left home empty-handed after having waited in the line for hours.

Author John Paczkowski wrote on The Wall Street Journal’s Digital Daily blog that the white iPhone 4 allure could spike sales by as much as 1.5 million quarterly units. He cited Ticonderoga analyst Brian White who thinks white iPhone 4 will draw people to Apple’s retail stores, creating a buzz around the company. The ten-month delay, he argues, has created “a certain mystique and scarcity value around the white iPhone”. On the other hand, it’s a matter of debate whether those 1.5 million units are new sales or simply purchases from the people that would have otherwise bought a black iPhone 4. White iPhone 4 is available both on Verizon and AT&T.

The unit could be especially important for Verizon Wireless which faces increased competition from rival AT&T which bought T-Mobile USA to create the largest wireless company in the United States. A Digitimes report claims Apple cut CDMA iPhone 4 orders by half to five million units in 2011, causing its manufacturing partner Pegatron Technology to report a net losses of $19.38 million (about NT$559 million) for the first quarter of this year.