Are The Stars Aligning For Verizon iPhone Launch?Are The Stars Aligning For Verizon iPhone Launch?

We've been hearing rumors of an iPhone on the Verizon network for some time, but the expected dates seem to come and go with no news. The latest rumor is early 2011 and we keep getting additional information that makes that seem more credible than any previous rumor.Most recently, Verizon has named Lowell McAdam the president and future CEO of Verizon according to The Street.com. The article states as head of the Verizon Wireless division he has done a lot to move Verizon away from some of its overlord-like policies, like aggressively keeping other devices off of its network or restricted application downloads, music and video to its proprietary VCast service.

With him at the top, he should be able to come to an agreement that both Verizon and Apple can live with. Verizon lost the iPhone to AT&T because then CEO Denny Strigl wanted to exercise more control over the device than Steve Jobs was willing to give up.

Then, as if it was a foregone conclusion, Credit Suisse released a report according to VentureBeat that says Verizon will steal 1.4 million AT&T customers when it releases the iPhone in early 2011. While 23 percent said they would switch, once Credit Suisse dug deeper the number that likely will is a little smaller. Only three percent said they would break their AT&T contract and presumably pay the dreaded early termination fee to AT&T to move to Verizon's network. Another 18 percent said they would after their contract expired, but given many are on contract after getting an iPhone 4 this year, it would be 2012 before many would be eligible. A lot of things can happen in two years, so that 18 percent doesn't mean a whole lot right now.

Other recent evidence includes the million CDMA chips that Apple has purchased. Verizon uses the CDMA network while AT&T is GSM based.

How many of you will jump ship if you are a current AT&T iPhone user, or if you are a Verizon user and had a Droid on your wish list this year may hold out for a few more months and see if you can pick up an iPhone instead?