4G LTE Verizon iPhone 4

4G LTE Verizon iPhone 4 rumored to debut immediately after Christmas

Okay everyone, take this for what it is right now: a big rumor. That being said MacDailyNews says this information is from "a sole source that we believe to be credible." The rumor? The iPhone 4 is going to drop on the Verizon network right "after Christmas." Oh, and it will be a 4G LTE iPhone 4.

Here's what MacDailyNews' source says they know:

• The "after Christmas" unveiling of the Verizon iPhone was AT&T's final demand, so they could squeeze as many Christmas iPhone sales in as possible
• Verizon managers had training on the 4G iPhones last week and had functioning 4G iPhones in their hands
• The Verizon 4G iPhone 4 will be available the day it's announced
• The Verizon iPhone is already shipping to Verizon warehouses
• The Verizon iPhone is NOT being shipped to third-party resellers in order to control product leaks (good job)
• Verizon agreed to take complete responsibility for the security of the 4G iPhone before it's released to the public
• The Verizon iPhone will be marketed as the only "LTE iPhone"
• Since LTE is not widespread, Verizon will have multi-band chip backward compatibility with regular CDMA chips

Other notes include that the next major (5th generation) version of the iPhone was originally planned to be LTE-only. However, "nobody thinks that either Verizon or AT&T can get to critical mass to offer an LTE-only version" by its debut in the summer, which Steve Jobs is upset about; Apple is therefore "helping" U.S. carriers to build out LTE networks faster than they could alone. It should be noted that this rumored LTE iPhone 4 will presumably not be the 5th generation iPhone, but that a 5th generation iPhone will still likely debut in summer 2011.

Without further confirmation, it's anyone's guess if this rumor is true. But everyone knows it's only a matter of time before the iPhone lands on Verizon's network. And there has been that rush of iPhone sales to get people to sign up for two-year contracts with AT&T before Christmas...

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