Prototypes

Prior to the official unveiling of the iPhone 4 on June 7, 2010, two prototypes were brought to the attention of the media, breaching Apple's normally secretive development process. Many of the speculations regarding technical specifications proved accurate.

Gizmodo

On April 19, 2010, gadget website Gizmodo reported that they had purchased an iPhone prototype for $5000, and furthermore, had conducted aproduct teardown of the device. The prototype is reported to have been lost by an Apple employee, Gray Powell, in Redwood CityCalifornia.[10]Shortly after Gizmodo published detailed information about the prototype, Apple's legal associates formally requested for the phone to be returned to Apple, and Gizmodo responded with the intent to cooperate.[11] On April 22, officers from the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) task force of the California HTTAP Program raided the home of Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor responsible for reviewing the prototype, seizing all of his computers and hard drives.[12] The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the raid as violating journalist source protection laws that forbid the seizure of journalist computers as well as the suspicion that Apple had used its influence as a member of the steering committee which is charged with direction and oversight of the California REACT task force to push police into action in a way that would not normally be conducted for this type of incident. Apple had already received the iPhone prototype prior to the raid when it was returned by Gizmodo.[13] The District Attorney has stated that the investigation has been suspended, and discontinued searching through the Gizmodo editor's belongings as they determine whether the shield laws are applicable, and cautioned that no charges have been issued at this point.[14][15]

Taoviet

Pictures and video of a second prototype were published on a Vietnamese website, Taoviet, on May 12, 2010.[16] It was almost identical to the first, and used an A4 chip manufactured by Apple.[17] The website purchased the prototype for $4,000.[18] DigiTimes reported that the screen resolution of the new phone was 960-by-640, which was confirmed by Apple at the iPhone 4's official announcement.

Release


On 24 June 2010, Apple issued a statement that the white iPhone 4 models were proving more "challenging to manufacture" than expected, and pushed the release date back to the second half of July, although as of January 2011, the white iPhone 4 has yet to be released. According to Apple representatives, the white iPhone 4 should be released by Spring of 2011.[25] There has been much speculation surrounding the reasons for Apple's decision to further delay the release of the white iPhone 4. Among the most popular rumors are those concerning the phone's internal camera being adversely affected by light leaking in due to the semi-translucent glass and the white paint. Other sources report that the problem relates to Apple's inability to match the white color of the front face plate with that of the home button.[1]The iPhone 4 was made available for pre-order on 15 June 2010. Customers attempting to pre-order the iPhone 4 reported problems with the pre-order process on the U.S. and U.K. online Apple Stores which crashed due to the surge in traffic.[19] The same issue was reported with AT&T andSoftBank, Apple's exclusive partners in the United States and Japan respectively, who suspended advance sales of the iPhone 4 as demand threatened to exceed supply.[20] Retail stores were also unable to complete pre-order transactions due to the servers crashing.[21] Apple and its partner carriers received 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4 in the first 24 hours, the largest number of pre-orders Apple has received in a single day for any device.[22] Engadget reported that at 20:30 UTC, all iPhone 4 pre-order suppliers had sold out.[23] 1.7 million iPhone 4s were sold in its first three days of availability.[24]

The iPhone 4 has also been released through Orange in Tunisia and was available in eight cities at the launch.[26] In South Korea, it was released by KT on September 10. In Israel, it was released, too, on September 24, through CellcomPelephone and Orange. It was launched in Thailand on September 23 by AIS, DTAC and True Move, and in Malaysia on September 26 in Kuala Lumpur, and nationwide on September 27 according to the website of Maxis.[27] The iPhone 4 was released in South Africa on September 22 on the Vodacom and MTN networks, in very limited quantities.[28]The iPhone 4 was launched in Vietnam on September 30 by VinaPhone and Viettel, at first in 3 major cities: HanoiHo Chi Minh city and Da Nang, and then all over the country by the end of October.[29][30]

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would begin selling a CDMA iPhone 4. The Verizon iPhone went on sale on February 10 and pre orders began on February 3.[31][32][33] The Verizon iPhone includes the 'Mobile Hotspot" feature which allows a user to use the iPhone as a wireless hotspot, with up to 5 devices connecting at one time. The February 3 presale of the iPhone 4 broke Verizon's first day sales records for a single device.[34]