Did Phil Schiller tell a little white lie about a little white iPhone being on track for this spring? In an ominous sign of the troubled handset’s future, Apple’s online store went down for maintenance at midnight last night and came back up with the white iPhone 4 removed entirely.

9to5Mac is reporting that the long, troubled saga of the white iPhone 4 may get even longer and more troubled, if that’s possible. A number of folks noticed that Apple’s online store went down for maintenance at midnight Wednesday morning. Despite a few crazy predictions like the iPhone 5 being posted, the Apple Store returned a bit later with no visible changes.

Or maybe not. A “retail contact” with 9to5Mac went into Apple’s system and came up with one disturbing change: The total elimination of the white iPhone 4 from Apple’s database, which can also been seen in the above image from AppleRumors.it, with the white iPhone 4 now swapped out for the black model.

Now before the conspiracy theories begin to fly, it’s only a SKU that’s been removed from Apple’s system -- one that could easily be replaced if and when a white iPhone is officially released.

However, it could also mean that Apple has decided to forego a white iPhone 4 entirely and is looking ahead to the white iPhone 5. You’ll recall that Phil Schiller promised a Twitter follower a “white iPhone” -- but he didn’t specifically say a white iPhone 4.

At any rate, the troubled, mysterious fate of the white iPhone 4 continues…

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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac and AppleRumors.it)