White iPhone 4 release: four surprising hints it offers about iPhone 5

The white iPhone 4 is here, the iPhone 5 isn't, and there are now some surprising things we can glean from the former about the latter. Here are four hints the release of the new white iPhone 4 gives us about the upcoming iPhone 5.

Later than sooner: So much for a June iPhone 5 release date. The arrival of the white iPhone 4 now, basically May 2011, means the iPhone 5 can't be expected until the back end of summer.

Form factor: The white iPhone 4 marks the third time, after the Verizon iPhone 4 and the original iPhone 4, that Apple has made a big deal about the arrival of a new iPhone which has the exact same form factor. That space has officially been used up on the bingo card, and Apple knows it. Look for the iPhone 5, whenever it surfaces, to look noticeably different.

Aggression: Apple's willingness to push the white iPhone 4 out there this late into the iPhone 4 cycle means that Apple is willing to be proactively aggressive in ways it previously wasn't. While Apple's days of simply pushing one new update per product per year and letting it play out may or may not be over, this move on the heels of the Verizon iPhone 4 move says that Apple is now more willing to make intermediary moves between annual generational rollouts as needed, at least when it comes to the iPhone. Perhaps that's because, unlike Apple's other mobile products like the iPad and iPod, the iPhone actually has competition.

Predictability, or lack thereof: After releasing a Verizon iPhone 4 in the middle of the iPhone 4 era and a white iPhone 4 a month before it was expected to have released an iPhone 5, who knows what the hell Apple will do with the iPhone next or when it'll happen. But then that's exactly how Apple wants it, for competitive reasons if nothing else. And so for the first time in the iPhone's history, there's no roadmap for the iPhone's future. Something to keep in mind as we head into the iPhone 5 era, whenever and however it arrives. Here's more on the iPhone5. Here's more on the white iPhone 4.