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FINALLY Apple today started offering unlocked versions of their GSM iPhone! The online store now lists both a 16GB and 32GB unlocked version of the smartphone in both black and white models. The 16GB version retails for $649, while the 32GB option is available for $749. Apple currently sells locked versions of the iPhone tied to a contract with AT&T for $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models. Apple’s unlocked iPhones will only be capable of running on AT&T and T-Mobile networks in the U.S.

This is especially good news for people in the US who travel internationally. Now all you need to do is buy a SIM card and prepaid plan in the country you are visiting. You’ll have a local mobile number and no longer have to pay outrageous international roaming costs to call locally.

The Netflix blog this week announced that they have begun rolling out a Netflix application for the Android OS platform. The free app is available for download from the Android Market. Only however for the following supported phones: HTC’s Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, G2, and Samsung’s Nexus S. While the list does seem a bit thin, Netflix says it’s working hard to roll the app out en masse.

72.5 million people in the U.S. owned SmartPhones during the three months ending in March 2011, up 15 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android grew 6.0 percentage points to 34.7 percent market share, while RIM ranked second with 27.1 percent. Apple grew 0.5 points to 25.5 percent share, followed by Microsoft (7.5 percent) and Palm (2.8 percent).

Source: “comScore Reports March 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Razor Analysis: Android OS continues growth while Apple iOS seems to have plateaued even with Verizon as a new iPhone carrier. Bottom line is that there are far more SmartPhones on the Android OS at low, mid and high price-points. Additionally, Android OS phones are available on all wireless carriers in the US.

Reports online have been abundant this week that a white iPhone 4 will finally be released around the end of April 2011. Apple had promised a white version of the iPhone 4 when it first announced the phone back in June 2010, though Apple failed to ship it alongside the black version. The black version has already been on sale for the past 10 months so definitely long overdue and actually quite surprising. Apple has said that the alternate color was proving more “challenging to manufacture than we originally expected.”

Evidently the sizable delay had been attributed, in part, to the white model’s paint peeling when it got hot. An analyst report published last month said Apple had changed the film material being used to keep the device laminated, putting the company back on track to ship the phone in April. Apple has also told The Wall Street Journal that the white iPhone 4 is still on track to be released “in the spring,” though did not go into detail about what carriers the device would be offered on and in which countries.

When introducing the iPad 2 early last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it a point that the iPad 2 would ship in both black and white from day one. The company delivered on that promise. Days later, Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice president of worldwide product marketing, posted a note on Twitter saying the white iPhone 4 would be available this spring.