The Verizon iPhone!

The mere prospect of an upcoming Verizon iPhone launch seems to be getting more press than all of this year's CES events combined. Tech pundits all over the web are "confirming" the launch based on their "unnamed sources close to the situation." Really? I just don't see it happening. At least not yet.
I can't imagine Apple, being the innovative company that it is, would invest that much time and money at this stage in the game to develop a CDMA iPhone. It just doesn't make sense. Regardless of how dissatisfied they are with AT&T as a partner, I can't see them heavily investing their resources in an aging technology, especially given the speed limitations of EV-DO rev A.
Instead, I envision Apple releasing an iPhone mid-2011 (exclusively on AT&T) that will be an incremental upgrade on the iPhone 4, much like the 3GS was to the 3G. Next year, however, will be the big year where everything changes. The iPhone will be due for a major upgrade, which I believe will be LTE. The LTE iPhone will probably be available on Verizon and AT&T as both companies have committed to using it as their 4G standard.
Now, it's no secret that Verizon is scheduled to hold a press conference next week so I may be eating my words in a few days, but we'll see. In the meantime, what do you think? Is a Verizon iPhone headed our way soon?

My AT&T iPhone Upgrade Conspiracy Theory

In Monday's WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs mentioned that anyone who is eligible for an upgrade in 2010 through AT&T can get a new iPhone 4 at launch. Initially, that made me very excited because I would be able to purchase two phones (currently, my wife and I are on alternating contracts so one of us can always have the latest and greatest). The more I thought about it, however, the more I began to wonder... there must be more to this seemingly benevolent offer. After all, the deal seems just a little too good to be true. So, the wheels started turning and I came up with this conspiracy theory: I suspect that Apple is already working on an LTE (4G) iPhone and that phone will be made available to Verizon customers sometime in 2011. It's no secret that Verizon is aggressively rolling out its LTE network over the next several months and that could be in anticipation of a future relationship with Apple. This is probably making AT&T nervous and cause for them to try to get as many customers as possible to lock in to another 2-year agreement with the newly imposed $325 early termination fee. What better way than with a shiny new iPhone? We'll see how it all pans out.
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Incidentally, I came across this cool little trick. If you dial *639# on your phone, AT&T will send you a text message indicating what your eligibility status is. Both of my iPhones are currently displaying this message: