Rumour: Apple working on white iPad 2

Why do people get so excited about white versions of perfectly attractive black machines?

It's a question that’s never met with a sensible answer from our resident white iPhone lover Richard Brown, who still bursts into tears at the mention of the elusive white iPhone 4.

Dry your eyes, Mr Brown, because rumours of a white iPad 2 have come to light thanks to a photo allegedly depicting white iPad bezel (a.k.a., the ‘digitiser’, confusingly inaccurate terminology fans).

The photo was given to 9 to 5 Mac by an iPhone repair shop in China, which claims to have both coloured digitisers in stock, ready to repair iPad 2s ahead of the device's launch (on Wednesday).

Whether this is just another Chinese knock-off (or after-market add-on) is unclear, but it does raise the question of whether Apple will start offering different colours to differentiate its tablet from the others on the market (which are all exclusively black).

For what it’s worth, Richard has said that he prefers the white panel “Fo’ sure” and has already started building a new shrine next to the (rapidly decaying) iPhone 4 one, so there’s at least one person out there who’d buy it.