Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.
Earlier today, Verizon announced a special event to be held next week and while the company gave no details, everyone is speculating that this is the long-awaited, much-anticipated Verizon iPhone.
If that’s the case, one question immediately leaps to mind — would Apple really let another company announce an iPhone for them? We all know how secretive Apple is and how much they love doing their own events.
I believe the answer to that question is, yes. Apple would let Verizon announce the iPhone. The iPhone 4, that is.
The most important reason Apple would let Verizon make this announcement is that Apple is managing expectations.
If Apple sent out its typical invitation to join them in California for an event, the speculation would be that Apple was going to release the iPhone 5 or perhaps the iPad 2. I believe when the Verizon-compatible iPhone does come, it will simply be a CDMA version of the iPhone 4.
While Apple will go through the development of making a phone that is compatible with Verizon’s network, I doubt that they would completely change the development cycle to release the iPhone 5 early.
If Apple’s iPhone development cycle remains the same, we should see a new iPhone in June or July 2011.
Of course, there is another reason. Apple has the iPhone available on multiple carriers in many countries and they don’t make a big deal about it. Looking at this from a business perspective, Verizon is just another carrier for Apple.
This is a bigger deal to most of us because many want to use the iPhone on Verizon. But to Apple, it’s just a modified version of an already released product.
