Why a gold iPhone makes sense
Sources say the gold iPhone is a reality, although it might resemble a glass of champagne rather than a brick of bullion.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Rumors and discussion of a gold or champagne-colored iPhone are being mined at an ever-quickening pace as we get closer to an anticipated Apple event on September 10.
Over the weekend, iMore refined its own mock-up (above) of what a new, gold iPhone might look like. According to Ally Kazmucha, an editor for the site who also works for a company that anodizes colors onto iDevices as an after-market service, gold is among the easiest colors to bling out an iPhone. An easily gilded iPhone could be a flashy selling point for an iPhone 5S otherwise lacking in flash and major new innovations (depending on how much the rumored biometric sensors excite you).
Both Rene Ritchie of iMore and M.G. Siegler, a TechCrunch blogger turned venture capitalist, report confirmation from multiple sources that a gold iPhone is a real thing. Ritchie and Siegler say they both heard similar feedback after Ritchie published his initial rough mock-up of a gold iPhone, which looked like this:
Both Ritchie and Siegler were told to expect something more subtle in a lighter tone, as in Ritchie's revised mock-up at the top of this post. The word "champagne" also keeps popping up as a descriptor from multiple sources.
The real question is whether or not a little anodized bling will be enough to dazzle the Apple faithful and others into upgrading to an iPhone that's not expected to have many other major hardware upgrades.
Or perhaps I'm just too cynical and missing the nascent mobile revolution in precious metals. Pretty soon we'll be reading in the comments about how gold devices are for sheep and the real free thinkers all rock palladium phones.
