Buyers of the ivory-tinted model of Apple's iPhone 4 have been shocked in recent days to find that the device is .2 millimeters thicker than its ebony sibling. Even better, the controversy has reached such a critical mass that it has spawned its own title: sizegate.

But according to Apple's Phil Schiller, observers have got it all wrong. In a message to a reader of 9to5Mac, the senior vice president denied reports that Apple increased the depth of the iPhone in its transition to a lighter hue.

"It is not thicker, don't believe all the junk that you read," Schiller wrote in a message on Twitter.

Schiller sounds convinced, but the Apple executive will have a hard time disproving the slew of comparison shots that clearly say the opposite.

In the specifications page for the device, Apple maintains that the white iPhone 4 keeps the 9.3 millimeter depth of its predecessor, but many iPhone owners have observed otherwise. Some of these owners have even noticed that cases made for the black iPhone 4 don't fit the newer white version of the phone. Why these owners would want to hide their phones' pretty white exterior is as yet unknown.