iPhone 4 64GB and white model show in bootlegs

The gray market in Hong Kong has given up two different unreleased iPhone 4 models. One device found in Hong Kong's well-known Sin Tak gray market has been confirmed as a 64GB engineering prototype. Along with a basic capacity check, the Unwire example had the same "XX" markings on the back as escaped iPhone prototypes and showed an unreleased 995-6049LL model number.

The device shows that Apple was at least considering a 64GB model at one point but backed off for unknown reasons. Most likely, the high price of assembly for the iPhone 4, combined with the lack of flash memory price drops in 2010, made it too expensive to sell the higher capacity without also raising the price. A 64GB capacity may be more of an option for the iPhone 5.

More realistic for the near future is another sighting by Hong Kong's Sina. White 16GB models have reportedly shown up in China with full production boxes. The examples are believed to be signs that the white iPhone 4 is finally ready to ship and will make the spring target for the last three to four months before the iPhone 5.

White iPhones or their panels have been common sights in gray Hong Kong and mainland China stores, but they have usually been either poor clones or simply the raw parts from early, abandoned production runs. Paint inconsistency has been unofficially blamed for Apple having to give up on the first white iPhone batch but may have been solved with new Japanese methods that have solved the issue. The white iPad 2 may have been a sign of this early success. [via MICGadget]

By Electronista Staff