A brainy high-school tech whiz from Queens is taking a bite out of Apple.
The iPhone fanatic is making big bucks selling special kits that give the iPhone 4 a coveted white exterior — a makeover the company doesn’t plan to make available until next spring.
Fei “Phil” Lam, 17, began his online venture over the summer — by responding to one of the thousands of spam e-mails he gets.
“I get tons of spam mails selling me iPhone 4 replacement parts,” he told The Post in an e-mail. “I don’t usually read them, but I gave it a shot one day.”
He found out replacement parts for the white iPhone 4 (pictured) were already available, even though Apple won’t roll out its official version until next year.
Lam sells his do-it-yourself conversion kit — with how-to instructions — for $279 on whiteiphone4now.com; he’s pocketed as much as $130,000.
“Did some thinking and made the site in a day,” he said. “The site took off when it got picked up by TechCrunch, and exploded three days ago. I did not expect it to be popular when I made it.”
But things may soon get complicated for the whiz kid, who owns two Apple laptops, doesn’t use an iPhone, and isn’t impressed with the iPad.
“I’ve been contacted by Apple via a [private investigator],” he said, saying a letter accused him of selling stolen parts.
But “nothing is stolen,” Lam insisted. “How would he know who my suppliers are? Why didn’t he question the other sellers?”
Lam has no plans to take down the site; his lawyer told The Observer he’s “waiting to hear from [Apple] officially.”
A spokesman for Queens DA Richard Brown said it doesn’t appear the online sales involve anything criminal “on the surface.”
“We couldn’t say definitely that the business is criminal without an investigation,” he said.
Apple didn’t return requests for comment.
“I’ve been saving the money for my future, like college and my soon-to-launch start-up,” Lam said, telling FastCompany.com that his Web app “will be a super-simplistic way to connect with people online” with “elements of a social network.”
The high-school senior — he declined to reveal his school, describing it only as “nothing like Stuyvesant” — said he’s also looking forward to graduation.
“I’ll go to any decent college, really,” he said. “In computer science or business.”
With additional reporting by Cathy Burke, Post Wires