White iPhone 4? Keep waiting.

Apple announced today that the white iPhone 4 handset won't be available until later this year. The company offered only a minimal explanation on the white iPhone 4 shortage.

Pining after a white iPhone 4? Get prepared to pine away for at least a few more weeks. Apple announced today that the white iPhone 4 handset – which has been listed as unavailable on the Apple site for weeks – would not ship until "later this year." Apple blamed the delay on manufacturing problems.

"White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year," Apple reps wrote in a statement today. "The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected." Apple did not elaborate on the details of the manufacturing slowdown, nor did the company give a more precise date for the release of the white iPhone 4 handset.

Meanwhile, rumors about the reason for the white iPhone 4 delay rebounded around the Web today.

"While there's likely a manufacturing glitch, there could be another reason for the delay: Apple is working on a fix for the antenna problem which it will add to the new white iPhones," Business Insider's Jay Yarow theorized today. Yarow credited CNBC and posts to various Mac forums for the rumor.

On July 17, after weeks of being slammed for the (allegedly) spotty reception on the iPhone 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple would issue free plastic iPhone cases to all eligible consumers. "We're not perfect, and phones aren't perfect either, but we want to make all of our users happy," Jobs said. The plastic bumper cases became available for order today through a specially-designed iPhone app.