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I don’t see it happening. Not until LTE, and we’re nowhere near that.

In trying to trace the source, the most direct statement I can find is from <a href=http://wiki.twit.tv/wiki/MacBreak_Weekly_142”>Scott Bourne on MacBreak Weekly #142. It sounds like the Verizon marketing department has been telling some untrustworthy employees something along the lines of, “We’ll have an iPhone in June.”

He repeated that wording a number of times, quoting his source verbatim, so I’m confident that the wording is probably correct. And the wording is very important:

“We’ll have an iPhone in June.”

An iPhone. Not the iPhone. That’s a critical article.

Now, if this is taken literally, it sounds like Apple will launch a separate iPhone model (as would be necessary) for Verizon in June. This contradicts Tim Cook’s recent statements, and a different explanation for Apple to interact with Verizon — an LTE iPhone, once the network’s deployed in at least another few years — is better corroborated by recent statements and implications from both parties.

Another explanation for this rumor is that Verizon’s marketing department is saying something along the lines of, “We’ll have an iPhone[-equivalent] in June.” In other words, they’re going to have a hot new smartphone this summer, like they do every summer, and they’re going to market the hell out of it as an iPhone replacement or killer, like they do every summer.

Given that the source is supposedly the marketing department, and Verizon is still deluded to the core about the quality of their devices, and this is a much simpler explanation, and it won’t contradict common sense or recent statements from either company, which is more likely?