Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller has revealed that a white iPhone 4 will finally come along this Spring. Reuters reports that it's happening next month. Same guts, same features, same iPhone 4 except for the color. How can a new paint job scare up so much excitement and desire? What is it about white that makes this particular variety of iPhone draw such attention?Captain Ahab was obsessed with Moby Dick. Quint in the movie "Jaws" had his sights set on a great white shark. Now Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) fans are all aflutter over the fabled white iPhone 4, a device that has been winking in and out of potential existence since June of last year, when it was expected to be available.
But instead, only a black model appeared. Apple has delayed the launch of the white iPhone repeatedly, to general disappointment.
News that the white iPhone may be in production at long last has generated some excitement among Apple watchers.
It's going to be available this spring, Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, tweeted Wednesday.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the white iPhone 4 would likely be available next month. That set off a flurry of speculation.
Why the excitement? We've had the iPhone 4 for what, nearly a year now? So why should the possibility of getting the device in white get everyone all energized?
On the Side of the Angels
"Overall, white would appear to me to be a color that evokes some pleasantness," James Quesada, a professor of anthropology at San Francisco State University, told MacNewsWorld. "We project all kinds of virtues onto the color white," Quesada added.
"I think the color white gives the impression of efficiency, cleanliness, that you have a no-muss-no-fuss, good, solid product that you can trust," suggested Amy Wax, president of IACC-NA, the International Association of Color Consultants North America.
"It goes back to white having a good connotation, the connotation of being safe," Wax told MacNewsWorld. "You get a feeling that you're working with a safe product, something you can rely on, something that's safe and clean and streamlined, and something that's appealing from the technical aspect."
Clean and safe, yes. Doctors' gowns are white, we have white knights, and we use the phrase "white as snow" to describe something that's really clean.
Good connotations -- check. Ever notice how we think unicorns, those magical creatures that can only be tamed by virgins, are white? And white lies are OK because they're uttered with good intentions.
Whiteness Is a State of Mind
On the other hand, the storm troopers in Star Wars wore white, and when people are terrified, we say they're white as ghosts.
Then there is Moby Dick, the focus of Captain Ahab's madness; the great white shark, which wreaked havoc in the movie "Jaws"; and, of course, there are ghosts which, although they're white, are not generally regarded as benign.
"On the one hand, whiteness could be considered powerful, more modern and efficient; on the other, it's associated with colonialism," SFSU's Quesada pointed out. "In many societies, such as Papua New Guinea, where people are very dark skinned, they often associate whiteness with their ancestors, or with spirits or ghosts," he added.
In other words, the impact of a color depends on its context.
Color Isn't Just for Kooks
Color, the IACC-NA contends, can have a profound psychological and physiological impact on the human experience and, in particular, on users of the built environment.
Color affects our brain waves, the functions of the autonomic nervous system, and hormonal activity, the IACC-NA states. It also arouses definite emotional and aesthetic associations.
Yep, emotional associations. That may account for the excitement around the fabled iPhone 4.
Apple is one of the very few high-tech companies that offer products in white. Why is this?
"I'm sure they did a lot of market research before settling on that color," SFSU's Quesada opined.
Perhaps Apple did. According to the IACC-NA, again, color is a powerful communicator because of its symbolic, associative, attention-drawing and mood-creating effects.
Color can communicate the nature of a product -- its effectiveness -- or present the image of the trustworthiness of a service.
So, what has Apple got to say?
The company didn't respond to a request for comment by press time.
But instead, only a black model appeared. Apple has delayed the launch of the white iPhone repeatedly, to general disappointment.
News that the white iPhone may be in production at long last has generated some excitement among Apple watchers.
It's going to be available this spring, Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, tweeted Wednesday.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the white iPhone 4 would likely be available next month. That set off a flurry of speculation.
Why the excitement? We've had the iPhone 4 for what, nearly a year now? So why should the possibility of getting the device in white get everyone all energized?
On the Side of the Angels
"Overall, white would appear to me to be a color that evokes some pleasantness," James Quesada, a professor of anthropology at San Francisco State University, told MacNewsWorld. "We project all kinds of virtues onto the color white," Quesada added.
"I think the color white gives the impression of efficiency, cleanliness, that you have a no-muss-no-fuss, good, solid product that you can trust," suggested Amy Wax, president of IACC-NA, the International Association of Color Consultants North America.
"It goes back to white having a good connotation, the connotation of being safe," Wax told MacNewsWorld. "You get a feeling that you're working with a safe product, something you can rely on, something that's safe and clean and streamlined, and something that's appealing from the technical aspect."
Clean and safe, yes. Doctors' gowns are white, we have white knights, and we use the phrase "white as snow" to describe something that's really clean.
Good connotations -- check. Ever notice how we think unicorns, those magical creatures that can only be tamed by virgins, are white? And white lies are OK because they're uttered with good intentions.
Whiteness Is a State of Mind
On the other hand, the storm troopers in Star Wars wore white, and when people are terrified, we say they're white as ghosts.
Then there is Moby Dick, the focus of Captain Ahab's madness; the great white shark, which wreaked havoc in the movie "Jaws"; and, of course, there are ghosts which, although they're white, are not generally regarded as benign.
"On the one hand, whiteness could be considered powerful, more modern and efficient; on the other, it's associated with colonialism," SFSU's Quesada pointed out. "In many societies, such as Papua New Guinea, where people are very dark skinned, they often associate whiteness with their ancestors, or with spirits or ghosts," he added.
In other words, the impact of a color depends on its context.
Color Isn't Just for Kooks
Color, the IACC-NA contends, can have a profound psychological and physiological impact on the human experience and, in particular, on users of the built environment.
Color affects our brain waves, the functions of the autonomic nervous system, and hormonal activity, the IACC-NA states. It also arouses definite emotional and aesthetic associations.
Yep, emotional associations. That may account for the excitement around the fabled iPhone 4.
Apple is one of the very few high-tech companies that offer products in white. Why is this?
"I'm sure they did a lot of market research before settling on that color," SFSU's Quesada opined.
Perhaps Apple did. According to the IACC-NA, again, color is a powerful communicator because of its symbolic, associative, attention-drawing and mood-creating effects.
Color can communicate the nature of a product -- its effectiveness -- or present the image of the trustworthiness of a service.
So, what has Apple got to say?
The company didn't respond to a request for comment by press time.
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