Magical and Revolutionary White Color Could Spike iPhone Sales By As Much As 1.5 Million Per Quarter

In hardware and spec it’s no different from the device that preceded it to market last June, yet when it goes on sale today Apple’s long-delayed white iPhone 4 is expected to spur further sales.

It’s nearly a year old, but its color alone has the cachet to catalyze demand, says Ticonderoga analyst Brian White. So much so it may give iPhone sales a nice little tailwind in the June quarter, adding an additional million units or so to Apple’s total for the period.

“…People buy Apple products for many different reasons, including status, aesthetics, functionality, quality and the ‘cool factor,'” says White. “In our view, this delay has created a certain mystique and scarcity value around the ‘white’ iPhone 4 that we believe could drive incremental iPhone 4 purchases in the range of 1 million to 1.5 million units per quarter until the iPhone 5 potentially comes to market in September. At the same time, the ‘white’ iPhone 4 will draw consumers into Apple stores and create a buzz around the company in the near term.”

Leaving aside for a moment the possible bias implied by White’s surname and a predisposition, perhaps, to overestimate the color’s popularity (kidding), he may well have a point.

Apple is promoting the hell out of the white iPhone with a massive “iPhone 4 in White” ad on Apple.com, and the device has certainly managed to command some significant media attention. Anecdotally, I know of a few folks planning to “upgrade to white,” despite the lack of any carrier upgrade eligibility policies for it.

Will that translate into an additional 1.5 million iPhones sold for the quarter? We’ll see.