Wall Street Journal 'Confirms' Verizon iPhoneWall Street Journal 'Confirms' Verizon iPhone

Citing what it calls a person "familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal today reported that Verizon Wireless will finally get the Apple iPhone, which will be announced at the Verizon Wireless press conference set for January 11 in New York City.

AT&T has had the exclusive right to sell the iPhone in the U.S. since its debut in 2007, meaning consumers who want the iPhone have needed to switch to AT&T's network. This exclusive arrangement has been good to AT&T, which has signed up millions upon millions of iPhone customers over the past three and a half years.

The Apple iPhone is sold by multiple carriers in many other countries around the world. The U.S. would be one of the last major markets to offer consumers choice of carrier for the iPhone.

If Verizon announces the iPhone on January 11, as many suspect, it will have a profound effect on AT&T and Verizon and their struggle for power in the U.S. Analysts are predicting that Apple will sell at least 10 million iPhones on Verizon's network -- that's 10 million iPhones AT&T won't sell. In addition, some current iPhone owners are expected to defect from AT&T to Verizon. Analyst estimates for this number range all over the place.

Verizon Wireless already has more customers than AT&T in the U.S. by a few million. Adding the iPhone to its line-up (and millions of new customers) will firmly shift the balance of power to Verizon Wireless for the time being.

Unclear is what iPhone Verizon will get. Will it simply be a CDMA version of the iPhone 4? Will it have different hardware features, or be identical to the current generation iPhone? Will it be the iPhone 5? If it is, what will Apple announce in June? Will Verizon's iPhone have Long Term Evolution 4G (likely not) or be a regular 3G smartphone?

These and many more questions will likely be answered come 11AM EST on January 11.