Edible Apple

With all the ridiculous hoopla surrounding iOS location tracking, you might not have noticed that the white iPhone 4 is now shipping. Yes, after a 10 month delay, the white iPhone 4 is finally a reality.

Ina Fried of All Things D was able to score an interview with Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller yesterday where the duo explained why it took so long to bring the white iPhone 4 to market.

“It was challenging,” Schiller explained. “It’s not as simple as making something white. There’s a lot more that goes into both the material science of it–how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors.”

Interestingly, the specific reasons for the delay laid out by Schiller don’t directly match up with many of the reasons we’ve heard over the past couple of months.

Schiller said that it turned out there were a lot of unexpected interactions between the color of the device and various internal components. Also, like fair-skinned humans, white iPhones need a little more UV protection from the sun.

There was, of course, a report that the white iPhone 4 let too much light in and subsequently affected the quality of the iPhone 4 camera, but we can’t be sure if this is what Schiller is referring too.

In any event, Jobs noted that the lessons learned with the white iPhone 4 has helped Apple in other areas.

“We obviously think about this in a generic way because you have a white iPad.”

And note, Apple was able to deliver the white iPad on schedule.

And regarding Apple interviews, Fried was also able to chat up Jobs, Schiller, and Scott Forstall about the location data found in iOS 4.