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What if…no Verizon iPhone at CES?

Seth Weintraub | Dec 29 2010 - 7:19 am PT

We’re like 99.9% sure we are going to see a Verizon iPhone here pretty soon but InformationWeek doesn’t seem to think it will be revealed at CES.

Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced its lineup of speakers for its LTE news conference at next week’s CES show in Las Vegas and the news is likely to disappoint the hoards of journalists and stock analysts who have been predicting the firm will launch a version of Apple’s iPhone. Instead, Verizon said it will provide “a sneak peek of Android-based 4G LTE consumer devices” during the news conference, which will be Webcast live on Jan. 6.

Some other things to think about: Jobs doesn’t much like to let other people launch ‘his’ products. It would seem more than a little strange to have Verizon CEO Seidenberg introduce Apple’s CDMA iPhone. Also, the CDMA iPhone likely won’t be LTE 4G (at least at its current size/weight) and Verizon seems to be theming this CES as the year of 4G.

We’ve heard from a random anonymous tipster that Apple is planning a Jan 6th event as well. We obviously put zero faith in this but it does represent an interesting possibility of a simultaneous launch from both Verizon and Apple.

Whatever the case, too many big names like Fortune, NYTimes and the Wall St. Journal have all put their chips behind a Verizon iPhone for it not to happen soon.