Well, it's here. Despite at least a year of rumors and envy (after all, Steve Wozniak has one!), the much coveted white iPhone 4 is now available in the Apple Online Store. The snowy phone will become available in Apple retail stores today as they open, and AT&T, Verizon Wireless stores and some Apple authorized resellers will begin carrying them today, as well.

Mashable reports that, despite the hype, the price and functionality of the white iPhone 4 remains the same as the black version of the iPhone, but that “the thrill of finally having the often delayed device should be enough to prompt quite a few customers to spend their hard-earned cash. Bear in mind that the shipping time for the black iPhone 4 is 'within 24 hours', while the white version ships in '3 to 5 business days'.”

It's been a long, strange trip to the white iPhone. Apple's Steve Jobs first made the announcement about the now-legendary white iPhone last summer, but shortly thereafter, Apple stopped mentioning it. The white iPhone toted by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak turned out to be something he made himself from a conversion kit he bought online. Rumors abounded that the company was having mechanical problems in the creation of the iPhone: something about the white color reflecting too much light from the camera's flash, affecting picture quality.

When Verizon Wireless debuted its first iPhone back in February, rumors abounded in advance that the Verizon iPhone was the white iPhone, a rumor that came to nothing. Hopeful Apple customers with white iPhone lust were given hope back in March of this year, when Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide product marketing, tweeted, “The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!)”

So here it is. Was it worth the wait? And what are Apple watchers going to obsess over from now on?